Orlando Magic Physician Killed in Plane Crash

The Associated Press

BROOKHAVEN, Miss. (AP) - The Orlando Magic's lead team physician and his wife were killed Saturday when their plane crashed and caught fire.

Jim Barnett Jr. was flying the plane that crashed about 10:30 a.m. EST near the landing strip at Brookhaven Municipal Airport.

The 49-year-old Barnett was attempting to land at the time. His father and brother were among the witnesses to the accident that also killed 50-year-old Margaret "Missy" Barnett, Coroner Morris Henderson said.

"It fell and burned right short of the runway," Henderson said.

He said weather at the time of the crash was described as misty.

Barnett's father, Jim Barnett Sr., is a state representative and retired physician in Brookhaven, a town of about 11,000 in south Mississippi.

Brookhaven police officer Rob Smith said the Federal Aviation Administration was launching an investigation into the cause. Smith said the small plane "was fully engulfed when my units got there, it's totally gone."

The younger Barnett had been the orthopedic surgeon for the Orlando Magic since the team's beginning in 1989, team spokesman Joel Glass said in a telephone interview from Orlando.

"We're shocked and saddened by the news. Dr. Barnett was a part of our family and a part of our team," Glass said.

Jack Swope, Orlando Magic vice president and the Barnetts' neighbor in Winter Park, Fla., said whenever a player was injured "he was the first person we would bring in."

"He had an extremely gentle spirit," Swope said.

Henderson said the couple, parents of two children, had left Winter Park, Fla., about 9 a.m. Saturday. They had planned to fly to north Mississippi after a brief stop in Brookhaven to visit other relatives and attend the University of Mississippi football game against Auburn in Oxford.

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-- Carl Jenkins (Somewherepress@aol.com), September 11, 2000