Hendrick plane crash kills 10

The Hendrick Motorsports NASCAR Nextel Cup team has lost four key members of its organisation after the plane they were traveling in crashed on its way to Sunday's Subway 500 NASCAR Nextel Cup race in Virginia. Team owner Rick Hendrick, a Charlotte businessman who built one of racing's most successful empires, was not on board.

Oct 25, 2004, 10:23 AM

Hendrick lost his son, Ricky, a driver who retired with a shoulder injury two years ago and was being groomed to take over the business; his brother John, president of the family organisation; John's twin 22-year-old daughters, Kimberly and Jennifer; the company's general manager, Jeff Turner; and the chief of the team's engine programme, Randy Dorton.

According to a spokeswoman for the Federal Aviation Administration, the Beech 200 took off from Concord, N.C., and crashed in the Bull Mountain area seven miles from Martinsville's Blue Ridge Regional Airport.

All 10 passengers on the plane died in the crash just hours before team driver Jimmie Johnson won his sixth victory of the season.