NTSB Identification: ATL02FA091

Accident occurred Saturday, April 27, 2002 at Warsaw, NC
Aircraft:Beech BE-35, registration: N2152D
Injuries: 2 Fatal.

This is preliminary information, subject to change, and may contain errors. Any errors in this report will be corrected when the final report has been completed.

On April 27, 2002, at about 1406 Eastern Daylight Time, a Beech BE-35, N2152D, registered to a private owner, operating as a Title 14 CFR Part 91 personal flight, experienced an in-flight break up in the vicinity of Warsaw, North Carolina. Visual meteorological conditions prevailed and no flight plan was filed. The airplane was destroyed. The commercial pilot and one passenger sustained fatal injuries. The airplane departed Selkirk, New York, between 08:15 and 08:30 hours.

A witness stated she was working in her flowerbed on the west side of her home with her daughter when they heard an airplane. A short time later they heard a noise and her daughter asked if that was thunder. She stated that it was not thunder. They heard the noise again, but this time it sounded like an engine was sputtering. She looked up to see the airplane but it was initially blocked from view by dark clouds. She ran around to the east side of the house and they could hear the engine cutting in and out. She heard another loud noise and looked eastward towards the noise. Her daughter stated the airplane has blown up. She looked up and saw the airplane tumbling. At one point she observed both wings attached to the airplane, and then the airplane started spiraling towards the ground and disappeared from view behind trees.

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