1991 Bruno's plane crash

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The 1991 Bruno's plane crash was an aviation incident which occurred on Wednesday December 11, 1991 in Georgia which resulted in the deaths of all 9 people aboard.

The twin-turbojet Beechcraft 400 aircraft, registered as N25BR, was owned by Bruno's Supermarkets and was being used by the top executives of the Birmingham-based $3 billion supermarket chain to conduct an annual Christmas holiday tour of its stores in Georgia and Alabama. The group had left from Birmingham for Rome, Georgia to visit a FoodMax store there at 8:30 AM, then returned to Rome's Richard B. Russell Airport for a scheduled 15-minute flight to Huntsville.

According to Russell Airport manager Diana Farmer the crew had called into the Federal Aviation Administration's Macon flight service center to file an instrument flight (IFR) plan, but did not wait for confirmation, and proceeded on a visual flight plan instead. The plane took off at 9:37 AM in a thick fog with co-pilot Rob Stamps at the controls. After takeoff, the crew contacted the Atlanta Route Traffic Control Center for an IFR clearance, but because a student pilot was operating above the cloud ceiling in the vicinity of the airport, they were instructed to remain VFR for the time being. At that time, they reported their altitude as 1300 feet.

They travelled only 7 nautical miles before crashing into the flank of Mount Lavender, on property owned by Berry College. The crash site was at approximately 1,580 feet above mean sea level, less than 100 feet below the ridge line and about 120 feet below the mountain's 1,703-foot summit. The aircraft was not equipped with a ground proximity warning system. The Macon service center reported being unable to reach the crew by radio. At 10:30 the first reports came in of a fire on the mountainside.

The remains of the passengers and crew were removed from the remote site and brought to Floyd Medical Center for positive identification. Neither company founder Joseph Bruno, CEO and president Ronald Bruno, executive vice president Paul Garrison, nor senior vice president for store operations Samie Manzella were aboard the crashed plane. A company policy had been created to prevent the chair and CEO from flying together. Some of the other executives had been flying to other stores during the 20-day annual event.

The National Transportation Safety Board began its on-site investigation the following day. There was no flight data recorder, but they did recover data from a cockpit voice recorder. Shortly before the crash pilot John Tesney can be heard telling Stamps, "We’re going to have to get away from that mountain down there pretty soon." After some discussion, Stamps suggested, "a one-eighty to the left," and Tesney said, "You're getting close ... [Turn] to the right." Stamps warned, "I can't see over here; that's why I wanted to go the other way," and then asked "Should I just punch up?" The CVR's recording ended approximately one minute later.

The NTSB faulted Tesney for his decision to take off with low visibility, and both pilots for failing "to maintain awareness of their proximity to the terrain" during the flight. The Federal Aviation Administration had received two previous reports from Stamps complaining of Tesney's tendency to disregard safety procedures, but they resulted in no disciplinary actions.

The loss of so many experienced executives damaged Bruno's viability. A nascent "American Fare" joint venture with K-Mart stores was scuttled. The chain was sold to Kohlberg Kravis Roberts of New York City for $1.2 billion in 1995. Ronald Bruno resigned shortly after the sale. Three years later, with nearly $1 billion in debt, Bruno's filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy reorganization.

The Bruno's Classic, a PGA Seniors Tour tournament event sponsored by the supermarket, which had been announced just prior to the crash, was renamed the Bruno's Memorial Classic.

Casualties

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External links

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