Georgia pilot's plane and body found in N.C.

By Alexis Stevens

The Atlanta Journal-Constitution

The wreckage of a single engine Cessna was found in a remote area of Clay County, N.C., on Sunday. The pilot, 66-year-old Bill Allison of Helen, did not survive.

A search was launched Friday after the plane disappeared during a flight from Cleveland, Ga., to western North Carolina.

Friends of the pilot, assisting with the search, discovered the wreckage Sunday afternoon.

“We normally don’t want friends to participate, but it was a good thing that they were,” Georgia Civil Air Patrol spokeswoman Maj. Paige Joyner said.

The wreckage was located on a 5,000-foot mountain about 10 miles over the Georgia-North Carolina border, Joyner said.

“There was absolutely no one anywhere within hearing distance of him,” Joyner said.

Due to the remote location of the site it took several hours for emergency officials to reach the location, according to Civil Air Patrol Capt. Don Penven of North Carolina. Allison’s death was confirmed around 6 p.m.

In addition to the Civil Air Patrol ground and air searchers, the Georgia Department of Natural Resources, U.S. Forestry Service, and emergency officials from White and Towns counties are also involved in the search.

About 50 searchers from the Georgia wing of the Civil Air Patrol completed 15 fly-over missions, Joyner said.

Allison typically made the 38-mile trip several times a week from the grassy runway in Cleveland to Andrews-Murphy Airport in North Carolina, according to family friend and neighbor Kathy McMillan.

At the Andrews-Murphy Airport, the pilot’s business handled the airport operations.

Planes the size of the one Allison was flying typically do not have “black boxes” that larger commercial planes have, Joyner said. Instead, smaller planes are equipped with ELTs — emergency locator transmitters.

“Think of it as a little radio that has a trigger switch,” Joyner said. “Other than that, the radio does not transmit.”

A crash landing should trigger the switch, but that did not happen with this plane.

“When you get into that mountainous terrain, the radar can’t pick it up sometimes,” she said.

The Civil Air Patrol received numerous calls from people wanting to help with the search.

Allison is survived by his wife Wanda, children and grandchildren.