Posted for Hickham <hickham@hargray.com>:

4 Hoosiers die when kit plane crashes
Owners of race car axle company, friends were on vacation when craft went down in S.C.

  
By John Tuohy
May 18, 2003
 

An Indiana couple who owned a race car axle business were among four people killed in the crash of a small plane in South Carolina, aviation authorities said Saturday.

Greg and Marianne Moser, owners of Moser Engineering in Portland, Ind., crashed their home-built single-engine aircraft in Allendale, S.C., about 4 p.m. Friday.

The plane left the Portland Municipal Airport at 2 p.m. Friday.

Moser Engineering plant manager Jeff Bickel, 48, and his wife, Eileen, age unknown, of Portland, also were killed, said Moser marketing director Jon Bennett.

The plane was a Lancair 4 experimental plane, said National Transportation Safety Board spokesman Paul Schlamm.

"A lot of hobbyists or aviation enthusiasts make these planes from kits now," Schlamm said.

Officials are unsure why the plane went down in a rural area just northwest of Savannah, Ga. Schlamm said initial indications were "the aircraft was working with the controller trying to work around some weather when it went off radar."

The four were on their way to Beaufort, S.C., for a vacation, Bennett said. "Though they traveled a lot for business, this was for leisure to get their minds off business," he said.

The Mosers' company builds custom axle assemblies for drag racers and stock cars. The company started in 1982 and has 38 employees.

The couple were pillars in the community and popular with workers, Bennett said.

Marianne Moser, 49, was "everybody's mother and sharp as a tack," he said.

Greg Moser, 50, was past president of the Portland United Way, a leader with the Portland Rotary Club and president of the Jay County Development Board.

"It is very tough around here today," Bennett said. "He called his workers his boys, and he took care of them. He would give his shirt off his back for them."

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Call Star reporter John Tuohy at 1-317-444-6418.

[ http://www.indystar.com/print/articles/4/043992-7294-009.html  -Rob ]