Broken bracket likely led to fatal ultralight crash
By Compiled from Times wires
Published June 5, 2003
MANATEE - A tiny U-bracket likely caused the death of two men whose ultralight aircraft crashed into the Gulf of Mexico Monday.
Dave Bristow, spokesman for the Manatee County Sheriff's Office, said Wednesday the office has completed its investigation into the crash that killed Danny Mora, 37, and Robert Duncan, 28.
Investigators said Mora was piloting a Quicksilver MX2 ultralight - basically a tiny boat with a propeller and glider-like wings - about 100 feet above the water near Bradenton Beach when the wings separated from the boat and the men plunged into the water.
"The apparent cause would be that the bracket broke, which caused the wing to go backwards in to the propeller, which caused the craft, we think, to go down," Bristow said.
Minister accused of sex assault on teen
LAKE WALES - The pastor at the Church of the Nazarene in Lake Wales has been charged with sexually assaulting a 17-year-old youth leader three times in 2001.
The Rev. Gene Francis, 52, of Lake Wales, was arrested Tuesday and charged with unlawful sexual activity with a minor. He was released from the Polk County Jail on $5,000 bail.
A Lake Wales police report said detectives began investigating after the teenager reported telling Nazarene church officials about the abuse but could not persuade them to discipline the pastor.
Wednesday, the church issued a statement denying it took no action. Church officials met with the youth leader after he complained of inappropriate comments, then confronted the pastor with the allegations, which he denied, said the statement from the Central Florida District, which is made up of 90 churches.
Francis has been suspended, church officials said. He did not return a telephone call for comment Wednesday.
Gold and emerald jewelry found in galleon wreckage
SEBASTIAN - A gold and emerald cross necklace and two emerald rings found inside a gold box in the remains of a storm-wrecked Spanish galleon went on display Tuesday at the Mel Fisher's Treasure Museum in Sebastian.
The jewelry, worth at least $200,000, was discovered under 6 inches of sand in about 12 feet of water 3 miles south of the Sebastian Inlet Sunday.
Diver Jon Wilson said he found the box as part of an ongoing search at the site, where a hurricane wrecked a Spanish treasure fleet in 1715. Florida's "Treasure Coast" takes its name from those and other Spanish wrecks.
The box contained a gold cross about 2 inches long studded with seven emeralds and attached to a thin 5-foot gold chain. It also held two emerald and gold rings. "Everything is solid 22-carat gold, except the emeralds," Wilson said.
Wilson is a partner with independent subcontractor Clyde Kuntz of Vero Beach, who works with the Mel Fisher Center Inc. salvage operation.
The center and the subcontractor split 80 percent of the value of found treasures, and 20 percent goes to the state.
