Crash cause unknown, jury says

On a blustery evening in Charleston Harbor, two friends perished in the crash of a World War II-era biplane that was ruled an accident more than a year ago. On Friday night, a coroner's inquest reached a different conclusion.

After four hours of deliberation, a six-member inquest jury settled on "undetermined" as the cause of death for Jacob Ralph Brown, 61, and James A. Powers, 76. At issue was how a "gust lock" lever designed to be used when the plane is parked was activated while the plane was flying, which disabled its controls. The lock can be activated by pulling a lever either in the front passenger seat or the rear pilot seat. Investigators found the lock had been activated from the passenger seat.

The six jurors reached their decision after hearing eight hours of testimony from more than a dozen witnesses. Their other choices included accidental, homicide or suicide.

Charleston County Coroner Rae Wooten had previously ruled that the May 23, 2007, plane crash was an accident. When new information was brought to her, she convened a coroner's inquest to ascertain the manner of death.

Friends and family said Brown was a highly skilled pilot at the controls of the 1943 Boeing Stearman PT-17 when the plane inexplicably appeared to deliberately slam into the shallow waters of Crab Bank across from the Old Village of Mount Pleasant. "He was a good pilot. He could handle problems," said Shirley Brown, his wife, during tearful testimony.

Several weeks after the crash, Brown's friend Richard Adams contacted the Charleston County Sheriff's Office. "I had suspicions that the plane crash was not an accident," Adams testified.

At the time of the crash, Brown was flying the two-seater with Powers in front of him as the passenger. Much of the testimony focused on a lever in the passenger seat of the plane that had been pulled to lock the controls, an action that would prevent Brown from maintaining control of the plane. Experts testified that the lever could only have been placed in that location by a person. It would not have accidentally been activated, they said.

Adams said Powers, a former Air Force fighter pilot, had been affected emotionally by a string of setbacks including the death of his beloved first wife two years earlier, a rocky second marriage and a cancer diagnosis. "He had nobody," Adams said. The three men were in the same church group on James Island. Adams described visiting Powers the day of the accident and finding him uncharacteristically disorganized. He said that he saw papers such as a will and other documents in the home that made it appear as if Powers were putting his affairs in order before the flight.

However, Powers' stepson Lee Campbell testified that Powers was in a good frame of mind the day of the crash. "We were going to play golf the next day. He was actually very happy. He was excited to be flying. I think it was a spur of the moment thing," Campbell said. He had no reason to believe that his stepfather was in any way despondent or contemplating taking his life. "He never hurt anybody in his entire life," Campbell said.

The final report on the crash by the National Transportation Safety Board has not been issued. The mangled plane was taken to a hangar near Macon, Ga., where Wooten, a county deputy and others traveled to investigate the crash. Christopher Cochran, a co-owner of the plane, said someone, either the pilot or the passenger, had to pull the lever to lock the controls. It could not have happened accidentally, he said. The plane was well-maintained and in excellent condition, he said.

Reach Prentiss Findlay at 937-5711 or pfindlay@postandcourier.com.