Message posted by DaveB on March 25, 2004 at 14:52:21 PST:

Three plane crash victims identified

Air Force, company won't release other two names

Three of the five people killed last week when the Air Force plane they were flying in crashed about 125 miles northwest of Las Vegas in the Nevada Test and Training Range have been identified.

Derrick L. Butler, 40, Daniel Smalley, 46, and Roy Van Voorhis, 56, all of Las Vegas, were killed when the Beechcraft KA 1900, assigned to the Air Force Materiel Command, crashed on March 16. All three men were civilians and employees of JT3 LLC, a Las Vegas-based contracting company.

The identities of a fourth civilian passenger on the flight and the pilot, an Air Force civilian employee, have not yet been released. The Air Force employee was not stationed at Nellis, and the fourth civilian passenger was employed by JT3, Nellis officials said.

Officials with JT3 have repeatedly refused to comment on the crash or the employees who were killed. Air Force officials would not comment. The identifications were confirmed through the mortuary that handled the arrangements.

The plane was flying what Nellis Air Force Base officials called a routine support mission when it crashed for unknown reasons about 5 a.m. The plane had taken off from a remote location on the 2.9 million-acre Nevada Test and Training Range, and was headed for the landing strip outside of Tonopah on the northern edge of the range.

Butler, Smalley and Van Voorhis, all had served in the military in the past, according to obituary information provided by Palm Mortuary. The families of Van Voorhis and Smalley declined to talk to the Sun Monday.

"It's just such a tragic loss," Butler's wife, Ramona, said.

Services for Butler, Smalley and Van Voorhis are all to take place at Palm Mortuary, 7600 S. Eastern Ave. Services for Butler were scheduled for 10 a.m. this morning with burial to follow in Palm Valley View Memorial Park, while services for Van Voorhis were held at 1 p.m. Sunday and for Smalley at 4 p.m. Sunday.

Butler, 40, was born Oct. 25, 1963, in Sacramento. He was a retired Air Force master sergeant.

In addition to his wife, Ramona, Butler is survived by a daughter, Alisa Butler; mother, Opal Howard; a sister, Monica Smith of Las Vegas; and a brother, Kirk Butler, of Sacramento.

Van Voorhis, 56, was born on May 18, 1947, in Canandaigua, N.Y. He was a retired master sergeant in the U.S. Air Force, having served for 20 years from 1967 to 1987.

After retirement, Van Voorhis had a second career as a senior technician at EG&G Technical Services for JT3. He is survived by his wife, Shirley, of Las Vegas; daughters, Gail Dawson of North Carolina and Marcia Van Gelder of Florida; stepdaughter Melinda Griffin of South Carolina; stepson Randy Odom of South Carolina; parents Charles and June Van Voorhis of New York; sister Amy Isaacson of California; and six grandchildren.

The Van Voorhis family requests memorial donations be made to the Dewey Animal Shelter of Las Vegas.

Daniel Smalley, 46, of Las Vegas, was born May 4, 1957, in Flemingsburg, Ky.

He served in the U.S. Air Force and spent 22 years in Las Vegas. He is survived by his parents, Raymond and Anna Elizabeth Watson Smalley of Ohio; son, Tim Smalley of Las Vegas; sisters Connie Ferguson of Ohio, Sandy Johnson of Ohio; brother, Vic Smalley, mother and father-in-law Phyllis and Joseph R. Glaser of Las Vegas; and stepchildren Ryan and Erika Brunswick of Minster, Ohio.

Nellis officials said that the cause of the crash is unknown and that a safety investigation board is investigating.

Beechcraft KA 1900s are twin-engine turbo-prop aircraft that can hold as many as 19 passengers.

The Air Force Materiel Command is headquartered at Wright-Patterson Air Force Base, Ohio, and is charged with developing and acquiring products and technology, including new weapons systems, for use by the Air Force. The command includes a work force of about 90,000 military and civilian employees.

According to JT3's website the company assists customers, and other contractors in the planning, preparation, and execution of test projects and training missions.

EG&G Technical Services, Inc. and Raytheon Technical Services Company formed JT3 in response to the Defense Department's merger of the engineering and technical support management of several western ranges, according to the website.

The crash was the worst at the Nevada Test and Training Range since the September 1998 helicopter collision that killed 12 Nellis airmen. Two HH-60G Pavehawk helicopters were practicing night maneuvers when they collided 25 miles north of Indian Springs.

The six crewmen on each helicopter were killed in the crash.

The last fatal crash involving aircraft taking off from Nellis or flying on the range occurred on Dec. 4, 2002, when two A-10 Thunderbolt IIs collided. Capt. Eric Palaro, a pilot assigned to the 52nd Fighter Wing at Spangdahlem Air Base in Germany, was killed in that crash.

More recently, an A-10 crashed about 40 miles northeast of Las Vegas on November 18. Capt. John Dyer, a student at the U.S. Air Force Weapons School, was treated and released from the Mike O'Callaghan Federal Hospital in Las Vegas after he safely ejected from the jet.

In Reply to: Re: Janet crash posted by lone wolf on March 22, 2004 at 8:50:25 PST:

Replies: