Patsy Cline: The Flight 38 Years Later

The Flight 38 Years Later
(cont'd)

Dyersburg:

We were on a schedule and decided we had better get along toward Dyersburg. We got back into the Comanche and left once everyone had all of the pictures they wanted.

We arrived in Dyersburg around 4:15 P.M. Before we could get out of the Comanche, an older fellow walked toward the plane. It was Leroy Neal. Leroy is a retired FAA employee who was working at the flight service station the night they landed for fuel. Randy came in to the flight service station office, which was a building adjacent to the main building. There was a restaurant in the main building. As Randy was walking into the Flight Service Station office, the other three headed for the restaurant. They got a bite to eat while Randy checked weather.

Leroy Neal, retired FAA employee who gave Randy his weather briefing.

Leroy Neal, Bill Knight and Jeff Parker

Main building with restaurant where Patsy, Hawkshaw and Cowboy ate while Randy checked the weather. The view is from where the Flight Service Station office stood at that time.

Leroy Neal is quite an interesting man. He remembered a lot of what happen that day so many years ago. Leroy said he did not know Randy and he was certainly not aware that the three others were celebrities. Randy got a weather briefing and said he wanted to go talk to the others in the restaurant. Later he came back and said he had talked to his wife who said the sun was shining in Nashville. Leroy said he (Randy) seemed to “put a lot of stock” in what his wife had said, and said he was going on and would return if the conditions got too bad. I also found out from Leroy that they did not have radar at that time. It is a convenience we take for granted because it is so accessible now. Now the Doppler radar will show precipitation and thunderstorm cells much like you see on the TV. Today almost every airport has a computer terminal with live Doppler radar on continuously.

Bill Braese, the Dyersburg Airport Manager at the time, tried to get Randy to stay over due to the high winds on the way to Nashville. Randy told Braese that he had already come from Kansas City and he was going ahead.

The weather information at Nashville, which Randy had, said the ceiling was 900 feet, the temperature was 53 degrees, and the dew point was 51 degrees. Winds were 20+ and gusty out of the west or northwest. The difference between the temperature and the dew point is what we call the “spread” in pilot’s language. With only two degrees between the temperature and the dew point, it meant there was a good chance of the ceiling getting lower and fog forming if the spread got any less. When the temperature and dew point are the same you have a saturation of moisture in the air. In other words FOG.

I had wondered why the folks at Cornelia Fort knew that Randy, Patsy and the others would be arriving that night. They were waiting on them that night and finally went home when they did not show up, perhaps thinking they had changed their minds and stayed somewhere else. I learned the reason (or at least one of them) that Randy called his wife was to have her call Cornelia Fort and ask them to have the landing lights on.

Later that night, Leroy was at the local bowling alley and one of his coworkers came in and told him that the plane he had briefed earlier was overdue in Nashville. The Dyersburg Civil Air Patrol was called out to help with the search because they had no idea what could have happened or where they might be.

Sunset at Dyersburg airport at about ten minutes until six.

After we finished visiting with Leroy and Earl Willoughby, a local historian, we prepared to depart. We got into the Comanche and went through the checklists and taxied out to runway 22. That was the same runway they used. At 6:07 we called our position and intentions on the radio to the Unicom frequency and started rolling down the runway...

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