FEDERAL CRASH INVESTIGATION UPSETS PILOT'S FAMILY

National Transportation Safety Board Concludes Drugs Impaired Pilot And Led
To Fatal Crash Last Summer.

The man killed in the crash of a homemade aircraft last summer had recently
used drugs that probably caused him to lose control of the plane,
government investigators have found.

Cuyler "Punk" Davis of Blackshear was killed July 23 while at the controls
of his friend's experimental aircraft. The two had just finished working on
the unregistered plane and hadn't filed a flight plan. Jack Johnson took
the plane up first from the Briar Patch airstrip in northern Effingham
County. After two spins, Davis, 53, took a turn.

He never returned.

Four minutes into his ride, the aircraft crashed into a tree and then to
the ground. He died at the scene.

The investigation by the National Transportation Safety Board noted that
less than 10 days before the accident, a federally-licensed aircraft
inspector had listed eight reasons the Quicksilver MXL II Sport wasn't safe
for operation. Among them: the engine was oversized and the fuel tank,
engine muffler, battery mountings and electrical wiring weren't safely
installed.

But the final NTSB report found the probable cause of the accident wasn't
mechanical -- and that has Davis' family upset.

The engine, airframe and flight controls were working until the collision,
the report said. The pilot was impaired by the use of drugs.

The federal report said toxicology testing of Davis' blood and urine
revealed "use of numerous prescription drugs, as well as recent use of
marijuana."

That doesn't sit well with Davis' family. They don't dispute that he may
have had traces of marijuana in his system. But they don't believe that's
what caused the crash.

A lawyer representing Davis' three children -- who did his own
investigation -- contends the plane wasn't fit for flight.

"It's been a real tragedy and to have this compounded upon it is
devastating to the family," said Dan Haltiwanger, a lawyer in Barnwell, S. C.

Haltiwanger said his investigation -- based on information gathered by
Effingham County officials and input from witnesses at the crash scene --
concluded the plane crashed because it wasn't assembled right.

"It doesn't matter what you had in your system, trace amounts of marijuana
or not, that plane was going to crash," Haltiwanger said.

He said the family hadn't been notified about the NTSB report -- they
learned of it Friday from a reporter -- and they may try to challenge it.

Davis' family said he was on disability, struggling with various health
problems. He'd had kidney failure and heart problems, high blood pressure
and a blood clot in his leg.

Those ailments had him on a range of prescription medication used to
control acute pain, anxiety and panic attacks and high blood pressure,
which were also revealed in the toxicology testing.

Clara Davis said her son used marijuana occasionally.

"He wasn't the type that smoked it everyday," she said.

She's convinced the aircraft malfunctioned. She doesn't think her son
caused the accident that killed him.

"I can't understand why he went up in that thing, put together the way it
was," Davis said. "I know it wasn't him. It was that plane. I know he was
all right."

His niece, Vanessa Lee, wonders if her uncle's leg troubles -- he'd had
trouble walking because of the blood clot -- might have played a part in
the accident.

"It doesn't make sense," Lee said. "In my heart, I don't feel like he would
get plastered and get up in a plane. That was just not him."