Investigation Underway in Fatal Plane Crash As Autopsy Information Released

October 6, 2015 Charlie Bauder

Oconee County, South Carolina Coroner Karl Addis has released autopsy information on two of the victims of last Friday’s plane crash.

Addis said that the pilot, 71-year-old Charles D. Smith of Warsaw, Indiana died of multiple injuries due to blunt force trauma.

Meanwhile, he said one of the passengers, 44-year-old Scott A. Smith of Warsaw, Indiana, died of a fractured neck.

As for the other two passengers, 54-year-old Tony Elliott of Warsaw, Indiana died from chest trauma and a fractured neck due to blunt force trauma and 51-year-old Scott D. Bibler of Warsaw, Indiana, died from chest trauma due to blunt force trauma.

The plane carrying the four men crashed on Lake Hartwell at the Stephens County and Oconee County, South Carolina state line Friday afternoon.

They had flown from Indiana and were headed to Clemson for this past Saturday night’s Clemson-Notre Dame football game.

Meanwhile, parts of the plane are being gathered for transport to a facility in Atlanta, where an investigator says they’ll be re-assembled in an attempt to rebuild the plane as much as possible.

Ralph Hicks of the National Transportation Safety Board said it’s part of his agency’s attempts to pin down a cause for the crash.

According to the investigator, it’s possible his agency will be unable to retrieve all parts of the plane, but will re-enter the waters of Lake Hartwell in an attempt to find what might be there.

Hicks has also played down a notion that the plane might have crashed because it ran out of fuel.

He said he was present at the crash scene and smelled aviation fuel, which is an indication that the plane had fuel at the time of the crash.

Meanwhile, the Indiana area where the four men lived is reacting to their death.

Deb Patterson, a writer for inkfreenews.com, said that the community has lost four prominent and beloved individuals and adds that the communities in which all four men lived and worked are in shock and disbelief.

Charles Smith was a former state championship winning football coach in Indiana and Scott Smith was his son.

Meanwhile, Bibler was also a former football coach at a high school in that area of Indiana and Elliott is a local Indiana racing legend.

NASCAR racer Tony Stewart chimed in on Elliott’s death on Facebook, stating that he was a “fierce competitor on the track,” as well as a father, husband, son, brother, and friend.

The four men were also remembered Friday night at Warsaw High School’s football game as word spread of what had happened, as well as at Tippecanoe Valley High School, where both Charles Smith and Bibler had coached.

We appreciate inkfreenews.com for allowing us to use this information.