1991 Bruno's plane crash

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-engine Beechcraft 400 aircraft 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 flight to Huntsville.

The plane took off at around 9:30 AM in a thick fog. According to Russell Airport manager Diana Farmer the pilots called into the Federal Aviation Administration's Macon flight service center to file an instrument flight plan, but did not wait for confirmation, and took off on a visual flight plan instead. They made it only 6.5 miles before crashing into the flank of Mount Lavender, a 1,526 foot ridge on property owned by Berry College just a 6.5 miles to the west. At 9:37 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. They recovered data from a cockpit voice recorder in which pilot John Tesney can be heard telling co-pilot Rob Stamps, "We’re going to have to get away from that mountain down there pretty soon."

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 on no disciplinary actions.

The loss of so many experience 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.

Victims

• Angelo Bruno, chairman
• Lee Bruno, vice chair
• Sam Vacarella, senior vice president of merchandise
• Edward Hyde, vice president of store operations
• Randy Paige Jr, vice president of personnel
• Karl Mollica, director of produce
• Mary Faust, senior vice president of Steiner-Bressler
• John Tesney, pilot
• Rob Stamps, co-pilot

References

• "Supermarket Chain Devastated By Crash That Kills Five Top Executives" (December 11, 1991) Associated Press
• Torpy, Bill & Kathey Alexander (December 12, 1991) "Voice on plane's radio: 'Watch out for mountain!': Team probes Rome jet crash that killed 9." The Atlanta Journal and Constitution, p. A1
• Strauch, Barry ( 1992) "[ National Transportation Safety Board Aviation Accident Final Report]
• "Cockpit Transcript Shows Pilots Tried To Avoid Mountain" (March 30, 1992) Associated Press
• "Bruno's After the Crash" (July 6, 1992) Forbes
• Pace, David (July 8, 1992) "Safety Board Blames Pilots for Corporate Jet Crash." Associated Press