Wicker, who lives in Gainesville, Va., with his wife and three children, is the senior pilot for Colgan, the Manassas company from which WTOP leased the Cessna and another plane. It took rescue workers nearly an hour to cut Wicker out of the wreckage and 90 minutes to extricate Thompson.Īn Alexandria resident who is married but has no children, Thompson has been WTOP's traffic-watch reporter for two years.
The aircraft narrowly missed an unoccupied house, struck a tree, flipped over and came to rest against a second tree. Thompson called back about a minute later to say the engine had quit and that Wicker would attempt an emergency landing in Vienna. Thompson was in the midst of his evening traffic report Thursday when he radioed the station that the plane was having engine trouble and would attempt to return to Manassas Airport, from which it had taken off about two hours earlier. Asselin said he was told that Wicker, who had had tubes inserted into his throat to help him breathe and could not speak, took a pencil and paper and wrote the word "Steve?" when he regained consciousness after surgery Thursday night.īoth men remained in the hospital's intensive care unit last night. Wicker, 52, was listed in serious but stable condition with internal injuries. He was conscious during the day and able to speak to his wife Nancy, according to WTOP-radio news director Armand Asselin. Thompson, 34, remained in critical condition at Fairfax Hospital yesterday but was "holding his own," according to hospital spokeswoman Kathy Zajdel, who said, "His chances look better than they did yesterday."Ī piece of the plane's steering column was embedded in Thompson's abdomen and he spent five hours in surgery late Thursday night.
"I don't know if they thought they had enough to make it, or if the guage wasn't working or if there was another problem." "There should have been sufficient fuel to fly both trips but we generally refuel for each flight," said Colgan, who said Thompson and Bernard (Wick) Wicker, the pilot, would have checked the fuel gauge before takeoff. Colgan, a Democratic state senator from Manassas, said the plane had been used for both the Thursday morning rush-hour report and again that evening without being refilled. Colgan of Colgan Airways, owner of the single-engine Cessna, said company records indicated the plane's 43-gallon fuel tank had last been filled after a rush-hour flight Wednesday night.
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That fact, plus accounts from witnesses that the plane's engine was off at the time of the crash, have led investigators to the preliminary conclusion that the aircraft ran out of fuel, the spokesman said.Ĭharles J. An empty fuel tank was the apparent cause of Thursday night's crash of a single-engine plane that critically injured WTOP-radio traffic reporter Steve Thompson and its pilot, according to federal investigators.Ī spokesman for the National Transportation Safety Board said yesterday that a preliminary inspection shortly after the crash indicated the plane's fuel tank was empty.
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