Former Kentucky EMT killed in NASCAR team plane crash

By JOHN HULTGREN
Kentucky EMS Connection

MARTINSVILLE, Virginia — Former Kentucky EMT Scott Lathram, 38, and nine others were killed when a Hendrick Motorsports plane crashed Sunday on its way to a NASCAR race.

Lathram worked at Marshall County EMS in the early 1980s. He was an Apache helicopter pilot who had flown for years in the Reserves. He was also a former Kentucky State Trooper who left the state police force last year to become NASCAR racer Tony Stewart's pilot. Lathram was not piloting the plane that had crashed, but had simply hitched a ride to the race.

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 about 12:30 p.m., said Arlene Murray, spokeswoman for the Federal Aviation Administration.

Rick Hendrick owns the teams of Jeff Gordon, Jimmie Johnson, Terry Labonte and Brian Vickers, one of auto racing's most successful organizations. 

Hendrick Motorsports identified the dead as: Ricky Hendrick, Rick Hendrick's son and a retired NASCAR driver; John Hendrick, Rick Hendrick's brother and president of the organization; Kimberly and Jennifer Hendrick, John Hendrick's 22-year-old twin daughters; Joe Jackson, an executive with DuPont, sponsor of Gordon's car; Jeff Turner, general manager of Hendrick Motorsports; Randy Dorton, the team's chief engine builder; Scott Lathram, a pilot for NASCAR driver Tony Stewart; and pilots Dick Tracy and Liz Morrison.

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