NASCAR Investigators try to piece together plane crash evidence

Other pilots decided the Blue Ridge Airport approach was too dangerous.
PATRICK SPRINGS, Va. (AP) -- Without a flight data record or cockpit voice recorder, investigators were trying to piece together what caused a Hendrick Motorsports plane to crash by poring over the wreckage, radar data and transcript of chatter between the pilot and air traffic controllers.
National Transportation Safety Board officials said they do not immediately know what caused the Beech 200 King Air to crash Sunday en route from Concord, N.C., to Blue Ridge Airport for a NASCAR race at Martinsville Speedway. Ten people died.
"We're in the data gathering phase of this investigation," the NTSB's Brian Rayner said Monday.
The Hendrick Motorsports plane -- carrying family and friends of one of NASCAR's top teams -- missed its first landing attempt before it veered off course and smashed into Bull Mountain, investigators said.
The crash killed everyone aboard, including the son, brother and two nieces of team owner Rick Hendrick. Hendrick did not join the flight because he wasn't feeling well, a team spokesman said.
Other planes diverted
Pilots of at least 20 other planes, most of them carrying sponsors and race fans, decided it was too dangerous to land at Blue Ridge Airport on Sunday, and instead touched down at Danville Regional Airport where landing in bad weather is easier.
Mike Rembold, manager of General Aviation Inc. at the Danville airport, said the pilots couldn't get into Blue Ridge because of fog.
"They were missing approaches," he said. "They would go down and not see the runway and then go back up. They headed here instead."
Rayner told reporters it looked as if the Hendrick plane slashed through the treetops for about 100 feet before crashing into the southeast face of Bull Mountain. The impact left a crater in the mountainside and remnants were thrown another 100 feet.
By Monday afternoon, the seven NTSB and Federal Aviation Administration investigators had recovered all of the bodies, then retreated to a church at the base of the mountain to pray.
Earlier, a chaplain from the Motor Racing Outreach group met with Hendrick employees for a prayer service at the firm's North Carolina compound. Counselors and chaplains were available for workers.
News of the crash halted Hendrick driver Jimmie Johnson's victory celebration after the Subway 500 in Martinsville as word of the deaths reached the Hendrick team, which also includes drivers Jeff Gordon, Terry Labonte and Brian Vickers.
Witnesses
Ronnie Foley, 48, and Timothy Cooper, 43, said they saw the plane fly over Sunday while they were waiting for the race to begin on TV.
"It was like it was idling. It sounded like it was at about half throttle," said Cooper, who was about 3 miles from the crash site with Foley. "Not that it sounded funny," Cooper said. "It just wasn't as loud as it should have been."
The dead were Ricky Hendrick, 24, Rick Hendrick's son; John Hendrick, Rick Hendrick's brother and president of Hendrick Motorsports; Kimberly and Jennifer Hendrick, John Hendrick's 22-year-old twin daughters; Joe Jackson, an executive with DuPont; Jeff Turner, general manager of Hendrick Motorsports; Randy Dorton, 50, the team's chief engine builder; Scott Lathram, 38, a pilot for NASCAR driver Tony Stewart; and pilots Richard Tracy, 51, of Charlotte, N.C., and Elizabeth Morrison, 31.