By BILL JONES

Staff Writer

A Cocke County man was killed about 8 a.m. Sunday when the ultralite aircraft he was piloting crashed on takeoff from Cooper Field, a grass airstrip off Fish Hatchery Road in far western Greene County.

The aircraft, which consisted of a triangular-shaped fabric wing from which a small, three-wheeled cart that carried the engine and pilot was suspended, came to rest nose-first in a cornfield off the left side of the airport's grass runway.

Greene County-Greeneville Emergency Medical Services Shift Supervisor William Lane, who also is a deputy Greene County medical investigator, identified the victim as Steve Edward Molden, 46, a resident of Cocke County's Hartford community.

Lane said Molden had apparently moved from Florida to Cocke County in recent years.

A check via the Federal Aviation Administration's Web site of the Sabre Tukan ultralite aircraft's registration number showed it to be registered not to Molden, but to a Mims, Fla., man and to have been manufactured in 1999.

Witnesses said the crash took place during a "fly-in" of ultralite aircraft at Cooper Field that had begun on Friday and was scheduled to end on Sunday.

A number of fly-in participants, including Molden and his wife, were camped at the airfield for the fly-in, witnesses said.

Crash Described

Greene County Sheriff's Sgt. Terry Rader, who had responded to the crash scene, told reporters how witnesses had described the fatal crash to him.

"He took off in the aircraft westbound on the runway and had trouble taking off," Sgt. Rader said.

"He almost hit a (parked) camper, finally got it off the ground, got it straightened out, went up about 150 feet. Something happened. They think a wind gust might have caught it. It took a sharp left turn and went straight into the ground nose-first."

Sgt. Rader said witnesses who reached the scene said Molden appeared to be dead when they arrived.

Witness Describes Crash

Beau Beaty, a Knoxville resident who was at the airfield when the crash took place, described to reporters what he saw.

"The guy took off on an ultralite," Beaty said. "It was one of the kites with a motor. He got about five feet off the ground. He came back down and bounced.

"I think it was this back wind pushing down on his kite. He managed to get it back up off the ground. He got back up over the tree line. Maybe 100 feet. He just dove down really hard to the left and hit."

Beaty estimated that the wind was blowing five to eight miles per hour at the time of the crash.

"That wind caught him and shot him down toward the ground," Beaty said.

Another witness said Molden was not believed to have been an experienced ultralite pilot.

Rader also said he had been in touch with both the National Transportation Safety Board and the Federal Aviation Administration on Sunday morning.

"They're going to send someone from Nashville to come up here and investigate the crash scene," Sgt. Rader said.

EMS Supervisor Comments

"From what we can gather from witnesses, the deceased was taking off in his ultralite, encountered some problems and crashed," said William Lane, the Greene County-Greeneville EMS Shift Supervisor and deputy Greene County medical investigator.

But Lane said authorities were unsure what had caused the crash. "We're not sure whether it was mechanical or due to the wind."

Lane said the body was taken to the morgue at the Greeneville-Greene County Crime Laboratory in Greeneville pending the arrival of federal investigators.

He noted that local authorities did not plan to request that an autopsy be performed. However, he added that he did not know if federal authorities would request an autopsy.

Also responding to the crash scene were medical first-responders from the Midway Volunteer Fire Department and a Greene County-Greeneville EMS ambulance.

Units from the Greeneville Emergency & Rescue Squad were dispatched initially by Greene County 911, but were told to cancel their response after early-arriving emergency personnel discovered that the crash did not involve entrapment.