Air-Space Mistake Led To Fatal Crash

NORTHAMPTON, Mass. - The single-engine airplane that was struck by a sky diver Sunday night and plunged 7,000 feet, killing an Auburn woman and three others, mistakenly had flown into air space reserved for jumps, officials said yesterday

The sky diver, who broke his ankle, hit the airplane's vertical stabilizer shortly after jumping from another aircraft whose pilot was following proper procedures by maintaining radio contact with air traffic controllers, officials said.

It appeared that the pilot of the wrecked airplane, a Cherokee Piper Warrior II, may have been confused; a map was found in the cockpit after the accident, authorities said.

The pilot apparently did not have his radio tuned to the proper frequency to pick up broadcast warnings about the designated jump zone, which extends about 4 miles from the airport in all directions when sky divers are active, they said.

"We do not know if the Piper was in communication with anyone," said Jeffrey Guzzetti, an air safety investigator for the National Transportation Safety Board.

Guzzetti said Klein was a certified private pilot with 174 flight hours in his pilot's logbook. The map showing the jump zone was opened and found in the cockpit of the plane, he said.

Among those killed in the crash was Christina Park, 18, of Auburn, a sophomore at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. She was a 1992 graduate of Thomas Jefferson High School.

Also killed were the pilot, Elliot Klein, 49, of Rhinebeck, N.Y.; his son, Jonas Klein, 18, an MIT freshman; and Jean Kimball, 45, of Pine Plains, N.Y., officials said.

Officials said the plane was returning the students to Boston from Poughkeepsie, N.Y., when the collision occurred about 2:30 p.m. above Northampton Airport on the banks of the Connecticut River.

The sky diver, Alfred E. Peters, 51, of Westfield, was in stable condition at Cooley Dickinson Hospital in Northampton, officials said.

Guzzetti said Peters was the first of five jumpers to leave the jump plane at an altitude of 7,800 feet.

He said Peters, an experienced Army sky diver with more than 38 jumps this year, believed the collision occurred at about 7,000 feet.

"About 5 or 6 seconds out, he saw the plane heading toward him, angling down," Guzzetti said. "He thought it would go over him, but he remembers a thump and hitting the tail, and he looked out and saw his right boot was missing."

Guzzetti said the pilot of the jump plane did not see the Piper until he was turning back toward the airport to begin his landing. The pilot told Guzzetti he saw the Piper spinning about 500 feet from the ground, but Guzzetti said investigators did not know the altitude at which the plane went out of control.

Guzzetti said investigators were searching for a 4-foot by 2-foot piece of the plane, the vertical stabilizer, which was not found at the crash site in a Northampton corn field.

Peters' daughter, Kelly, 21, brought four roses to the crash site yesterday, one for each of the victims.

"I was scared to death when I heard about it," she said. "He's really shaken up about this, but we wanted to show we cared about these people."

Kelly Peters said the bizarre accident would not stop her father from sky diving again.

"He's strong," she said. "He'll definitely come out of it. I'm sure he'll go out and do it again."

Meanwhile, MIT students and officials mourned the death of their colleagues.

John Hammond, a housemaster at the dormitory where Park lived, said Park and Klein were friends because Klein was dating one of Park's friends. The two students apparently were at a social gathering in New York during the weekend, he said.

"Christina was well-liked on her floor and in the dorm in general," Hammond said. "Students are visibly shaken by the news of her death."