Rome, GA (near) Commuter Plane Crash, Dec 1991

CAUSE OF CRASH THAT KILLED NINE SOUGHT.

Rome, Ga. -- (AP) -- Federal investigators hoped burned remnants of a corporate jet strewn across a craggy Georgia mountainside would yield clues into a plane crash that killed nine people.
The twin-engine Beechcraft crashed Wednesday while carrying the top executives of the Alabama-based Bruno's grocery chain from Rome, Ga., to Huntsville, Ala., on the chain's annual Christimas greeting tour. Everyone aboard, seven executives and two crew members, died.
Bruno's executives had been visiting their dozens of stores for 10 days, company officials said, and had planned to make the trips for another 10 days. They flew in different groups, using at least two planes. Bruno's chief executive officer and other executives were on a plane Wednesday that visited Tupelo, Miss., and Chattanooga, Tenn.
Those killed in the crash were identified as:
Bruno's Chairman ANGELO J. BRUNO, 67.
Vice Chairman LEE J. BRUNO, 71.
Senior Vice President of Merchandise SAM A. VACARELLA, 43.
EDWARD C. HYDE, Vice President of Store Operations, 40.
R. RANDOLPH PAIGE, JR., Vice President of Personnel, 49.
KARL MOLLICA, Director of Produce, 37.
MARY FAUST, an Account Executive with Steiner-Bressler, Bruno's advertising agency, 41.
Two Pilots, JOHN TESNEY and ROB STAMPS.
The company operates more than 240 stores, in Alabama, Georgia, Florida, Tennessee, Mississippi and South Carolina, including Foodmax stores in Aiken County.
Authorities at the scene said the plane appeared to have slammed into the side of Lavender Mountain and burned. Small pieces of its cockpit and fuselage lay scattered across a 600-yard area, in a grove of trees; only the tail remained intact.
The mountain sits on property owned by Berry College near Rome, a city of about 30,000 located 80 miles northwest of Atlanta. The plane took off from Rome's Richard B. Russell Airport at 9:37 a.m. EST.

Aiken Standard South Carolina 1991-12-12
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Researched and Transcribed by Stu Beitler. Thank you, Stu!