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Plane to fireball in seconds

Two Tampa couples are injured, one man with serious burns, after going down shortly after takeoff.

By RICK GERSHMAN, TAMARA EL-KHOURY and KEVIN GRAHAM
Published July 16, 2006

	[Times photo: Ken Helle]
	A Cessna 320 was taking off at Wimauma's airport when the pilot suddenly could not gain altitude, according to a Hillsborough County Sheriff's Office spokesman. The pilot turned back toward the airport but crashed onto State Road 674 at Balm Wimauma Road.

WIMAUMA — It was a leisurely Sunday afternoon drive down a county road in rural southeast Hillsborough County.

And then the road ahead burst into a ball of flame.

Gary Huddleston and his wife, Alice, watched in horror as a car passed through the fireball and pulled over to the roadside. As Huddleston pulled up, he saw a small plane had crashed and caught fire.

Huddleston pulled a fire extinguisher from his van while his wife called 911.

By the time Huddleston got to the plane, the four people aboard had climbed out. Three were standing next it, dazed. One was on the ground.

“I saw three heads through the fire — they were standing there, in shock, and the one who was worst off, Joe, he was lying down,” said Huddleston, 59. “One woman’s hair was on fire. I said, 'Lady, your hair’s on fire; put it out.’ She patted it out herself because I couldn’t get to her.

“I told them, 'We got to get out of there, we got to move. The plane could explode again.’ I told Joe he needed to lie down, but he wanted to stand up. He asked me if I’d hold him up, and I did. But it was something. The burnt flesh kind of permeates your nose.”

Huddleston later learned that Joe is Joseph Versaggi, 63, the co-pilot. He suffered serious burns, officials said. His wife, Estelle, 63, suffered minor injuries.

Pilot Steve Dendrinos, 63, suffered burns to both arms when he pulled Joseph Versaggi  from the plane, authorities said. Dendrinos’ wife, Becky, 60, suffered minor injuries. All were taken to Tampa General Hospital. Both couples live in Tampa.

The crash occurred just after the plane attempted to take off from the Wimauma Airport.

It lost altitude, a wing fuel tank clipped the ground, and the plane cartwheeled twice before bursting into flames along the side of County Road 674. It stopped next to Balm-Wimauma Road, only feet from the end of the airport’s runway.

Authorities had not determined by Sunday evening a reason for the crash, but a colleague who spoke to Steve Dendrinos said he was told that the plane suddenly lost power.

Dendrinos and Versaggi are two of four men who owned the plane through a corporation called One Two Victor Inc. The other owners were Raymond Pine and James Ahearn.

Ahearn said Sunday that the four know one another through the “fraternity of flying.” They fly out of Peter O. Knight Airport on Davis Islands, just south of downtown Tampa.

Ahearn said Dendrinos and Versaggi were returning to Peter O. Knight, coming back with their wives from West Palm Beach, where they were looking for another aircraft to purchase. They often stop at Wimauma for fuel and because they know the owners there, he said.

Ahearn said Dendrinos called him while he was waiting to go to the hospital to tell him what happened.

“He said he was okay, his wife was okay, but he was in a state of shock,” Ahearn said.

“I don’t know why they sustained a power loss —  the plane is kept in impeccable condition, and it’s taken care of without any concern to the cost.”

A ruptured fuel line caused the plane to catch fire, said Hillsborough County sheriff’s Sgt. George Mosher. The Federal Aviation Administration was investigating the crash.

A Florida Highway Patrol trooper who arrived shortly after the crash was able to knock down the flames after flagging down a truck carrying carbon dioxide. He and the driver used the nonflammable gas to help extinguish the flames, Hillsborough County Fire Rescue officials said.

Sean Cronin of Jacksonville is an aviation lawyer and a retired U.S. Navy pilot with a background in aviation accident investigation.

Based on reports of the crash, Cronin said, “the most likely scenario here is some sort of engine problem. Or a weight problem — the aircraft was somehow overloaded, and it did not want to fly.”

Huddleston said he didn’t consider when he helped out that he could be killed if the plane exploded again.

“I didn’t think about it — I just done it in reflexes,” he said. “I felt so sorry for those people.”

Rick Gershman can be reached at rgershman@sptimes.com or (813) 226-3431.

[Last modified July 16, 2006, 23:43:30]