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Chattanooga Times Free-Press
Wednesday, May 30, 2001
Volunteers praised by family of pilot
Candice Combs
Staff Writer
JASPER,
Tenn. -- Alden DeFeo
came to Southeast Tennessee
not
for the beautiful scenery,
but to
search for a friend who
had been
missing for several days.
Her
friend and father figure, Bill
Kuckler, 64, was last
seen taking off
from John Tune Airport
bound for
Copperhill, Tenn., airport
in his
single-engine airplane
on May 12.
He did not file a flight
plan because
he was flying by visual
flight rules
and the weather that
day was clear.
Mr.
Kuckler was found dead
inside his plane by searchers
from
Sequatchie and Van Buren
county
rescue teams on Walden's
Ridge in
Sequatchie County at
10:30 a.m.
Saturday. From the tragedy
of his
death, Ms. DeFeo said
she
rediscovered life by
the efforts of the
people who helped search
for Mr.
Kuckler.
Ms.
DeFeo, her husband Marc and
four friends left Nashville
on May 18
and headed for Marion
County, the
area where Mr. Kuckler's
plane had
disappeared from radar.
They knew
nothing about the area
and posted
fliers with their hotel
room telephone
number around Marion
and
Sequatchie counties,
hoping
someone had seen his
orange and
white Cessna. Phone calls
began
pouring into the hotel's
lobby.
"When we
posted our number, we
were expecting people
to call and
just give us information,"
Ms. DeFeo
said. "Instead the phones
were
ringing off the hook,
and people
were wanting to help
search."
According
to her, at least 20
groups of people not
associated with
any law enforcement or
rescue
squads jumped on anything
that
would take them through
the woods
-- all-terrain vehicles,
pickup trucks,
horses -- and began searching
a
40-square-mile area north
and west
of Jasper on the southern
Cumberland Plateau.
"There
was even a man who had
just gotten out of the
hospital from
knee surgery to help
us search," Ms.
DeFeo said. "We were
dumbfounded
by all these people who
didn't know
us and were willing to
tromp through
the woods searching for
someone
they didn't even know."
Roy
Shrum, a mechanic at
Roadtec Inc. in Chattanooga,
lives in
the Whitwell Mountain
area about 23
miles south of where
Mr. Kuckler's
plane was found. He heard
about
the efforts to find the
downed plane
and immediately gathered
five
vehicles and some friends
to join in
the search.
In
addition to local efforts, search
and rescue squads from
Marion,
Sequatchie, Warren, Bledsoe
and
Van Buren counties, among
others,
combed the wooded and
rough area
with no success for nearly
two
weeks for Mr. Kuckler
Military
helicopters and volunteers
from the Civil Air Patrol
also aided in
the search, but Chief
Randall
Lockhart of the Sequatchie
County
Sheriff's Office said
there was no
way air searches could
have found
the plane.
"We
had been doing air searches
and couldn't see the
plane," Chief
Lockhart said. "We were
just
fortunate enough that
one of the
rescue squad members
from Van
Buren rode up on it."
A
temporary road had to be put in
Saturday afternoon to
allow trucks to
remove the wreckage from
the
crash site. The plane
was taken to
an impound lot so it
can be
inspected by Federal
Aviation
Association investigators.
The cause
of the crash is unknown.
FAA
officials will not comment
on the
crash until the investigation
is
concluded.
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