PLANE CRASHES IN N.C, KILLING 3 LAW OFFICERS

A Chowan County sheriff's deputy and two other law enforcement officers,
both members of the Civil Air Patrol, were killed Wednesday afternoon when
the plane they were using to spot marijuana fields in Chowan County crashed
just off Happy Home Road north of Edenton. Chowan County Sheriff Fred
Spruill identified the dead as:

a.. Deputy Richard E. Ashley Jr., 34, of Chowan County. The pilot, Sgt.
Anthony Scott Futrell of the Charlotte-Mecklenburg Police Department. Maj.
Robert C. Kennedy, 46, of the Boone Police Department.

Ashley, who was married and the father of two high-school-age boys, lived
less than a mile from the crash site, Spruill said.

``He was a very well-liked person, well respected in the area,'' Spruill
said. ``He was a very fine, outstanding officer with a very promising
career in law enforcement. He was very professional in his work and just a
very good person. We will miss him.''

The airplane had been flying over the rural countryside in Chowan County in
search of marijuana fields since early Wednesday before it crashed at 3:30
p.m., Spruill said. A second aircraft with a Chowan County deputy and a
Civil Air Patrol pilot landed safely.

``I saw the plane fly right over these trees here,'' said Bernard Byrum,
who lives a few hundred yards from the crash site. ``It looked like the
wing dipped to the left, and then it went up and down into the ground. I
don't know whether they overcorrected or not. You could just hear the metal
crash.''

The single-engine Cessna sat upside down in a heap in a bean field less
than 100 yards from a brick house along Happy Home Road. Authorities did
not know the cause of crash Wednesday evening. The plane did not catch
fire, Spruill said.

The National Transportation Safety Board has assigned an investigator to
the incident who is expected to arrive on the scene today, Spruill said.
The Federal Aviation Administration also has been advised.

The three men were looking for suspicious fields using global positioning
system equipment, said Chowan County Manager Cliff Copeland. Grants from
the state allow counties to make air searches each year, he said. The plane
had flown over Pasquotank County on Monday with a Pasquotank deputy on board.

Ashley had been a Chowan County deputy only a few months, Spruill said. He
was the first Chowan County law enforcement officer to be killed on duty in
the county's history, Spruill said.

Neighbors knew Ashley as a friendly person who loved being a deputy.

``He loved his job, and he loved his family,'' said Charlene Swain, who
lives nearby. ``He was a super nice guy.''

The aircraft, a Cessna 172S, was owned by the Civil Air Patrol and based at
Maxwell Air Force Base in Alabama, but it was assigned to Group 3 of the
CAP's North Carolina wing. The aircraft was last certified in October.

This was the second airplane crash in Chowan County in two weeks. On July
3, a single-engine Kitfox experimental aircraft plummeted to the ground,
killing the two men on board.

Staff writer Steve Stone contributed to this report.