3 N.C. OFFICERS DIE IN PLANE CRASH

TYNER, N.C. -- A sheriff's deputy and two police officers from North
Carolina were killed when the single-engine plane they were using to search
for marijuana plants crashed.

Witnesses said they heard the engine of the Cessna 172-S sputter and cut
out just before it crashed in a cotton field around 3:30 p.m. Wednesday,
Chowan County Sheriff Fred Spruill said.

There was no communication from the pilot that the plane was in trouble, he
said.

"I don't think they had time to say anything," Spruill said.

Alan Stone, a National Transportation Safety Board investigator, said
Thursday that the plane was only a year old and likely did not fail
mechanically. A final determination of the cause is likely to take at least
six months, he said.

The plane had made a flight earlier in the day without incident. It had
been aloft approximately an hour in its second flight when its engine
suddenly sputtered and the aircraft fell to the ground, Spruill said.

The deputy killed in the crash, Richard Edward Ashley Jr., 35, joined the
Chowan County Sheriff's office 15 months ago and had volunteered to fly
with the mission Tuesday.

The other men killed were identified as Sgt. Anthony Scott Futrell of the
Charlotte-Mecklenburg Police Department and Maj. Robert C. Kennedy of the
Boone Police Department.

Futrell was the plane's pilot, while Kennedy was the flight's trained
spotter for marijuana plants, Spruill said. It was Ashley's job to
communicate with law enforcement officials on the ground the locations of
any drugs found.

The flights were part of a long-standing statewide drug eradication program
which uses helicopters and small aircraft from the National Guard for
surveillance flights.

Witnesses said the plane circled the area for much of the afternoon, flying
slowly over fields.

Cheryl Jordan said the plane made her uneasy as it circled the area over
her house at low altitudes. The plane appeared to be flying normally, but
it suddenly plummeted to the ground as it began a turn, Jordan said.

"There was no explosion or nothing," she said. "It just went 'thump.'"

Spruill said Ashley's death cut short a promising law enforcement career in
Chowan's 16-officer department.

"We're a very small agency," Spruill said. "We're a family."