Pilot dies after grass-strip landing

OLIVER SPRINGS, Tenn., Oct. 19 (UPI) -- A Powell, Tenn., pilot was killed when his small airplane slid after it landed at a small airport and smashed into a tree, airport officials.

Doyle R. Chadwick, 66, piloted the single-engine Piper PA28 and had three passengers aboard who sustained minor injuries when the plane landed near Oliver Springs, Tenn., the Knoxville News Sentinel said Sunday.

The passengers, whose names were not available, were taken by ambulance to a hospital, the newspaper said.

"The information we have is that the aircraft landed on a grass strip, then slid into a tree," Kathleen Bergen, spokeswoman for the Federal Aviation Administration, said.

The National Transportation Safety Board will investigate the incident.

The plane was registered to Oak Ridge Flyers Inc., an aviation club with a limit of 50 members, each of whom shares ownership of each of the club's airplanes. The airport has one grass landing strip and some hangars, Susan McCue, the club's president, said.