Plane may have had engine trouble before crash

<br>McALESTER, Okla. (AP) _ An airplane that crashed in McAlester Wednesday afternoon, killing a Texas family of five, may have experienced engine trouble before attempting to land, investigators said.

Thursday, November 28th 2002, 12:00 am

By: News On 6

McALESTER, Okla. (AP) _ An airplane that crashed in McAlester Wednesday afternoon, killing a Texas family of five, may have experienced engine trouble before attempting to land, investigators said.

Federal investigators combed the wreckage of the Piper PA-34-220-T Thanksgiving Day in a wooded area near the McAlester Regional Airport, trying to determine what caused the plane to go down nose first.

``McAlester wasn't a planned stop,'' said Tom Little, a National Transportation Safety Board investigator. ``There was a problem with the plane. We don't know where that initial problem happened or what caused it.''

Investigators sifted through the debris and expected to interview eyewitnesses Friday. Little said pieces of the wreckage will be moved Friday and investigators will begin looking at the planes' twin engines.

``It's just unfortunate,'' Little said. ``Now the challenge is to figure out why this happened.''

Little will issue a preliminary report within the next week, but final results of the investigation could take months, he said.

William Loren Gray, his wife and three children were headed to Missouri to visit relatives for the Thanksgiving Day holiday when their twin-engine plane went down about 1,000 yards south of U.S. 69.

Gray, who was piloting the plane, his wife, Kathy Louise Gray, 53; sons Chad William Gray, 23, and Chase Loren Gray, 20, and daughter Brooke Ashley Gray, 17, all died at the scene, the Oklahoma Highway Patrol said.

The Grays lived in Farmers Branch, a suburb of Dallas, and were well-known at Trinity Christian Academy in nearby Addison, Texas.

``They were a strong Christian family and good supporters of the school,'' Barry Morgan, a coach at Trinity Christian Academy, told The Dallas Morning News. ``My heart is really sad.''

The six-seat plane was registered to Grayco Bank Products in Carrollton, Texas, said John Clabes, a spokesman for the FAA. Gray was president of the company.

Gray's partner, John Cox, said Gray was an experienced pilot who was using the plane to visit his mother in Missouri. Clabes said the plane left Addison and was headed for Monett, Mo.

``I've been his business partner for 27 years, and every year he visits his mother for Thanksgiving,'' Cox said in a telephone interview from the company's office in Oklahoma City.

Chase Gray was a student at Baylor University and Chad worked part-time for the company, Cox said.

The plane crashed at 4:10 p.m. in a pasture surrounded by trees.

Phil Brenner, owner of Brenair Aviation, said he watched the plane make a left turn and try to pull out of its landing attempt.

``He stalled the airplane out and it spun,'' Brenner said. ``It went in nose first. I heard a thud, but I didn't hear an explosion.''

Wreckage was scattered within 10 to 20 yards from the aircraft.