FBI Suspects Drug War Link to Plane Crash

ATLANTA —  The FBI today began investigating the possibility that a plane that crashed with sugar in its fuel, killing 16 sky divers and the pilot, was sabotaged in a drug war that also involved a lone cocaine-carrying parachutist who plunged to his death last month.

The National Transportation Safety Board reported that traces of sugar were found in the single-engine plane’s fuel filter, and the FBI said today that the aircraft’s pilot may have had ties to reputed drug dealer Andrew Carter Thornton II.

Thornton fell to his death Sept. 11 in the backyard of a home in Knoxville, Tenn., when his parachute failed to open. He was carrying 79 pounds of cocaine.

FBI spokesman Ed Horne said agents were investigating links between Thornton and David Williams, the owner and pilot of the Cessna 208 Caravan that crashed near Jenkinsburg, Ga., Sunday, with 16 members of a parachutists’ club aboard.

‘They Knew Each Other’

“There seemed to be some connection between the owner and the individual who bailed out in Tennessee,” Horne said. “They knew each other.”

Horne said the FBI is investigating “under the sabotage and destruction of aircraft statute.”

The safety board said Monday that the Cessna’s fuel was contaminated and notified the FBI Wednesday that chemical analysis showed evidence of sugar in the fuel filter.

Ira J. Furman, a spokesman for the board, said sugar would clog the plane’s system and ultimately cause engine failure.

Horne said the FBI is investigating whether sugar was dumped in the fuel tank as part of a drug war.

Both Thornton and Williams attended the University of Kentucky and both were avid parachutists. Thornton has been linked by federal investigators to an international drug-smuggling operation.