NASCAR: hendricks motorsports plane is missing

at the end of todays race they announced that the hendircks motorsports plane that was inbound to martinsville disapreared off the radar screen, no word as to who was on board or what their fate is

Oh jeeze that is bad news...

Who could have been on it?

i have no idea, if there was anyone missing from the teams today they didn't say anything about it, so will just have to wait and see, nothing on the nascar site about it yet

I'll check see if i can find anything...

How strange. where were they flying in from?

probably flying in from charlotte, where almost all the teams are based, here is more

Hendrick plane goes down
close to Martinsville track

By JIM UTTER

ThatsRacin.com Writer


A Hendrick Motorsports plane carrying two pilots and eight other passengers crashed into Bull Mountain, about 10 miles west of Martinsville, Va., site of Sunday's Subway 500 NASCAR Nextel Cup race, the FAA confirmed.
FAA spokeswoman Arlene Murray said a Beech 200 owned by Hendrick left Concord (N.C.) Regional Airport and crashed about 12:30 p.m. Eastern time Sunday, near Martinsville Speedway.

There was no news as yet on injuries or fatalities, Murray said.

HMS had four teams competing in Sunday's race with drivers Jeff Gordon, Jimmie Johnson, Terry Labonte and Brian Vickers.

In 20 years of competition, Hendrick Motorsports has garnered five NASCAR Winston Cup Series (now Nextel Cup) championships, three NASCAR Craftsman Truck Series titles and one NASCAR Busch Series crown, making it one of stock-car racing’s premier organizations.

Rick Hendrick is just the second team owner in NASCAR’s modern era to earn more than 100 Cup Series victories.

More than 400 employees call Hendrick Motorsports home, and day-to-day activities include management of HendrickMotorsports.com, the 15,000-square-foot museum and team store, marketing, public relations, sponsor services, licensing, show cars, merchandising, and much more

Sorry to hear about this. I'm not really a NASCAR fan, but stuff like this is disheartening.

Yeah that is extremely sad.

here is the latest update

NBC 6 News TV in Charlotte, N.C., reported Sunday afternoon that John Hendrick, Ricky Hendrick and engine builder Randy Dorton were on the airplane. John Hendrick is team owner Rick Hendrick's brother, while Ricky Hendrick is his son. Dorton was the organization's chief engine builder

Ah man his brother and son thats real sad. By the sounds of it i guess they won't find any survivors...

here is the latest update, not sounding good at all

NBC 6 News TV in Charlotte, N.C., reported Sunday afternoon that John Hendrick, Ricky Hendrick and engine builder Randy Dorton were on the airplane. John Hendrick is team owner Rick Hendrick's brother, while Ricky Hendrick is his son. Dorton was the organization's chief engine builder.

The TV station also reported that a Virginia funeral home had been told to expect 10 bodies.

Names given by the funeral home were those of Ricky Hendrick, John Hendrick, Kimberley Hendrick, Jennifer Hendrick, Dick Tracy, Joe Jackson, Liz Morrison, Jeff Turner, Randy Dorton and Scott Lathum

yeah all 10 of them died.

Ten confirmed dead in Hendrick Motorsports team plane crash

By JIM UTTER KYTJA WEIR AND BINYAMIN APPELBAUM

ThatsRacin.com and The Charlotte Observer


A Hendrick Motorsports plane carrying two pilots and eight other passengers crashed into a mountain Sunday afternoon en route to the Subway 500 NASCAR Nextel Cup race in Virginia.
Ten people were confirmed dead, including four relatives of Hendrick Motorsports CEO Rick Hendrick: His son Ricky Hendrick, his brother John Hendrick, and John's twin daughters Jennifer and Kimberly. John, 53, was the president of Hendrick Motorsports. Ricky owned a Busch Series NASCAR team and ran Performance Honda of Pineville, a motorcycle dealership.

Also killed in the crash were five Hendrick Motorsports employees: General Manager Jeff Turner, Randy Dorton, the chief of the company's engine program, engineer Scott Latham and company pilots Dick Tracey and Liz Morrison. The 10th victim was Joe Jackson, an executive with DuPont, which sponsored Jeff Gordon's Hendrick Motorsports car.

The plane had left the Concord Regional Airport, where the company has a hangar, and was headed to the Martinsville, Va., airport for the race where four of the company's teams were competing.

The plane crashed into Bull Mountain, about 10 miles west of the airport, shortly after 12:30 p.m., FAA officials said.

Emergency teams in Patrick County, Va., responded, but the plane appeared to have crashed in a remote area, said Keith Holloway, a National Transportation Safety Board spokesman. Holloway estimated that federal officials wouldn't be able to reach the crash site until Monday morning.

It remains unclear what caused the crash of the Beech 200 King Air plane, he said. In the past five years, 12 similar models have crashed around the world, killing their passengers, according to NTSB records.

The plane was among a fleet owned by the North Carolina motorsports company. Hendrick had four teams competing in Sunday's race with drivers Jeff Gordon, Jimmie Johnson, Terry Labonte and Brian Vickers.

In 20 years of competition, Hendrick Motorsports has garnered five NASCAR Winston Cup Series (now Nextel Cup) championships, three NASCAR Craftsman Truck Series titles and one NASCAR Busch Series crown, making it one of stock-car racing's premier organizations.

Rick Hendrick is just the second team owner in NASCAR's modern era to earn more than 100 Cup Series victories.

More than 400 employees call Hendrick Motorsports home, and day-to-day activities include management of HendrickMotorsports.com, the 15,000-square-foot museum and team store, marketing, public relations, sponsor services, licensing, show cars, merchandising, and much more

Yes, a son, a brother, and two nephews I think. Two pilots, and 4 other's.

They announced this over the loudspeaker at the conclusion of the race, and you could hear a pin drop in there for a minute.

Definetly sad.

Rick, having just barely cheated death himself, lukemia, has had it pretty rough lately.

Jeff Gordon tugged at the thin blue wristband, which contained the message: "Life Is A Team Sport."

Never did those words seem more poignant.
Gordon and the other drivers from Hendrick Motorsports went very public with their grieving on Friday, appearing together at Atlanta Motor Speedway just five days after the plane crash that killed 10 people and devastated their close-knit team.

The son, brother and twin nieces of owner Rick Hendrick were flying to the race in Martinsville when the plane slammed into a mountain not far from the track. The team also lost its general manager and chief engine builder.

"I think they would be proud of us to be able to come out here and just keep doing what we love to do, what they loved being part of," Gordon said. "There will be a time when we can all move on from this tragedy."

Certainly, it won't be this weekend. But, in a sport that carries the somber threat of death at every turn, Gordon and his teammates - Jimmie Johnson, Terry Labonte and Brian Vickers - knew it was time to get back to work.

They practiced in the afternoon. They qualified for Sunday's Nextel Cup race in the evening. They amazed those around them with their vulnerability, but also with their determination to make some sense of it all.

Rest of Story Click Here

Flight crew errors probably caused a 2004 Hendrick Motorsports plane crash that killed 10 people with ties to one of NASCAR's top racing families, the National Transportation Safety Board said Tuesday. The crew improperly read instruments and missed a landing approach to Blue Ridge Airport in Martinsville, Va., the NTSB said in a report synopsis e-mailed to The Associated Press. The Beech King Air 200 crashed into fog-shrouded Bull Mountain in the foothills of the Appalachians on Oct. 24, 2004.

Si.com

The crash killed the son, brother and two nieces of Hendrick Motorsports owner Rick Hendrick.