THREE DIE IN PLANE CRASH

TYNER - A local sheriff's deputy and two police officers from western North
Carolina were killed Tuesday afternoon when the single-engine plane they
were using to search for marijuana plants crashed in northeastern Chowan
County.

The deputy, Richard Edward Ashley Jr., 34, joined the Chowan County
Sheriff's office 15 months ago and had volunteered to fly the mission
Tuesday, Sheriff Fred Spruill said. The plane went down less than a mile
from Ashley's home.

Spruill, struggling to maintain his composure, 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."

Spruill identified the other men killed in the crash as Sgt. Anthony Scott
Futrell of the Charlotte-Mecklenburg County Police Department and Maj.
Robert C. Kennedy of the Boone Police Department. Kennedy, 46, was
originally from Currituck County, and his parents still live there, Spruill
said.

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 National Transportation Safety Board and the Federal Aviation
Administration are investigating the crash, the sheriff said.

The plane that crashed about 3:30 p.m., a Cessna 172-S, was one of two
aircraft being used for drug surveillance flights, and the second plane
remained in the area until emergency crews arrived, Spruill said. The
second plane, also being flown by the Civil Air Patrol, then returned to
Northeastern Regional Airport in Edenton, where both planes had taken off
earlier in the day.

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

Witnesses said the plane that crashed circled the area for much of the
afternoon, flying slowly over fields near the intersection of Happy Homes
and Icaria roads. Winston Dail, who lives next door to the cotton field
where the plane went down, said he saw it flying around the area as he
worked in his yard in the early afternoon. Dail said he went inside before
the plane went down, but he heard the engine of the plane speed up, sputter
and cut out just before the crash.

"I heard something that didn't sound right," Dail said.

The noise brought Dail to a window of his house, and he saw the plane near
treetop level plunging toward the ground. He said he called 911 after the
plane hit. He then went to see if he could help the victims, but rescue
workers were already on the scene.

Cheryl Jordan, who lives across the cotton field from Dail, said the plane
made her uneasy as it circled the area at low altitudes. Jordan told her
children to get out of the pool in their back yard, and she and her
children also witnessed the crash.

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 {M4thump."

Spruill said late Wednesday the plane that crashed had made one flight
earlier in the day without incident. The plane had been aloft about an hour
when its engine suddenly sputtered and the aircraft fell to the ground,
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.

Several bystanders, many of whom knew Ashley, gathered near the crash site
as the afternoon wore on. Spruill said the young deputy left behind a wife
and two children.

A memorial service will likely be held this weekend, and counselors will be
available to help Ashley's colleagues deal with the loss.

"He's going to be missed," Spruill said.

Ashley's death marked the first time in Spruill's 16-year tenure as sheriff
that an officer has died in the line of duty, and Spruill said it is the
first such death he knows of in county history. Chowan County dates back to
the 1600s.