Utility had role in Allgood crash, insurer contends

A civil trial continues today in a case involving the plane crash that killed former state Sen. Tom Allgood Sr.

XL Speciality Insurance Co. sued Georgia Power in Richmond County Superior Court, contending that Georgia Power is partly responsible for the Aug. 4, 2000, crash.

XL Speciality insured the 1998 Piper Malibu Mirage that crashed that morning on takeoff from Daniel Field headed to Portland, Maine.

Mr. Allgood, 71; his wife, Thelma, 61; and pilot Stephen Patterson, 51, all died. The prominent Augusta couple were on their way to Portland, Maine, with their bags, bushels of produce and their 100-pound black lab, Oz.

In his opening statement to the jury Monday, the insurance company's attorney Robert Browning told the jury that Mr. Patterson wouldn't have known that morning that a new 25-foot power pole had been placed 150 feet from Runway 5 two days earlier.

Mr. Browning told the jury that the Georgia Power pole was erected in protected air space without Federal Aviation Administration knowledge or permission. The power company also failed to alert airport authorities, who would have closed Runway 5 if they had known about the pole, Mr. Browning said.

The plane hit the pole and plowed through the nearby bus stop on Wrightsboro Road. It broke apart as it crossed the Daniel Village parking lot and crashed into a brick wall at the Augusta Water Works.

Even if Mr. Patterson was at fault, so was Georgia Power, Mr. Browning said. The insurance company wants Georgia Power to reimburse the $732,180 insurance claim and expenses for the airplane.

But Georgia Power attorney Ben Brewton told the jury in his opening statement that the power pole didn't cause the crash.

Mr. Brewton pointed to the National Transportation Safety Board's report that found Mr. Patterson at fault because the plane was overloaded.

The most significant reason for the plane crash was that it was 33 percent over the maximum weight capacity, he said. The type of takeoff Mr. Patterson attempted, the uphill runway, the wind direction and the hot, humid weather combined with the weight to doom the flight, Mr. Brewton said.

U.S. District Court Senior Judge Dudley H. Bowen Jr., a veteran pilot, was at the airport the morning of the crash.

The Piper Malibu Mirage is a high-performance, relatively fast airplane. But as he watched it head down Runway 5, it seemed slow and lumbering, Judge Bowen testified. He saw the plane again after liftoff and watched as one wing and then the other dropped. He looked toward the shopping plaza and saw a column of smoke where the plane had crashed.

Reach Sandy Hodson at (706) 823-3226 or sandy.hodson@augustachronicle.com.