Nashville plane crash pilot hailed as hero

NASHVILLE, Feb. 4 (UPI) -- The pilot of a small plane that crashed Monday in Nashville, killing all four people on board, is being hailed as a hero after narrowly avoiding crashing into a YMCA filled with people.

Glenn Mull, 62, who was flying the plane, his wife Elaine, along with their daughter, Amy Harter, 40, and granddaughter Samantha, were identified as the victims of the crash, which occurred just before 5 p.m.

The Mull family owned Mull Farms and Feeding in Pawnee Rock, near Great Bend in central Kansas, and were on their way to attend the National Cattlemen's Beef Association Trade Show in Nashville.

Metro police said the Mull missed its approach at John C. Tune airport and was preparing for a second approach when witnesses said it came out of the clouds and slammed into the ground.

Eyewitnesses said the plane made a hard right bank before crashing, missing all the buildings in the heavily populated area, including the YMCA, where there were some 300 people inside at the time of the crash. No one inside was hurt, but several cars in the parking lot were damaged.

"That tells me the pilot did one hell of a job protecting lives," said District Fire Chief George Hickey.

"Nothing can describe the hole this day will leave in all our hearts and souls," another family member, Stan Harter, wrote on Facebook. "Please pray for my brother Doug as he has lost his wife and daughter, mother and father in law in a horrific tragedy. And for my nephew Chase who lost his mom, sister, and 2 grandparents."

National Transportation Safety Board investigators were on scene Tuesday afternoon to try to find recording devices or GPS in the plane wreckage that might help piece together what caused the crash. NTSB spokesman Eric Weiss said it was "too soon to say" if Mull deliberately avoided buildings.

But those who were nearby are simply grateful.

"It was very close to us," said Tori Bachelor, the assistant director at Academy of Harpeth Village, a daycare near the crash site, where children were waiting to be picked up at the end of the day. "We are just really grateful here at the academy that no one on the ground was injured."

[CNN] [Tennessean]