“What I would give for the black box, if they had had them back then,” says the son of co-pilot Bascom Lee Haley, who was just 13 months old when the plane crashed.
Haley had 2,858 hours in the air with Piedmont Airlines, 1,678 of them on DC-3 aircraft, such as flight #349, and his son says that although just 27 years old, his dad also had extensive military flight training.
“He was rated one of the best instrument flyers in his Air Force Training,” says Mike Haley, who finds himself baffled how two experienced pilots, could have run into a mountain.
As for the son, now a videographer in Winston-Salem, Mike Haley finds himself constantly wrestling with the crash, but his unease doesn’t keep him out of the skies.
“I fly fear-free,” says Haley. “Why would God take both me and my dad?”
Flying in conditions as were on the night of Oct. 30th, 1959 can be a treacherous ordeal. In light of all the speculation surrounding the accident, I am sure both George Lavrinc and Lee Haley, pilot and co-pilot respectively did their absolute best. Both men were highly qualified in instrument flying and between the two had thousands of hours. All I can say is my hat goes off to these men, I can only imagine what their thoughts were in the last minutes of their life, and I thank them for their ultimate sacrifice on the alter of Piedmont Airlines aviation history.
Hi, I’m Tim Haley. Lee’s Dad, Archie Haley is my dad. I’m the youngest of his 5 sons. I live near Winston-Salem and a pilot as well. I’m looking forward to the memorial and reuniting with family members.
I’m his daughter, Debbie. I was 4 1/2 and remember some of the night of the crash. I was at a Halloween party. I, unfortunately, cannot remember my Dad at all.
I went on to join the Air Force and retire in 1993. I have a 23 year old son, David and live in North Carolina near my brother.