Publicist: 2 Mangione musicians die in plane crash!!

[Newsbot]

CLARENCE, N.Y. – A commuter plane dropped out of the sky without warning and nose-dived into a suburban Buffalo house in a fiery crash that killed all 49 people aboard and one person in the home. It was the nation's first deadly crash of a commercial airliner in 2 1/2 years.

The cause of the disaster was under investigation, but other pilots were overheard around the same time complaining of ice building up on their wings — a hazard that has caused major crashes in the past.

The twin turboprop aircraft — Continental Connection Flight 3407 from Newark, N.J. — was coming in for a landing when it went down in light snow and fog around 10:20 p.m. Thursday about five miles short of the Buffalo Niagara International Airport.

Witnesses heard the plane sputtering before it plunged squarely through the roof of the house, its tail section visible through flames shooting at least 50 feet high.

"The whole sky was lit up orange," said Bob Dworak, who lives less than a mile away. "All the sudden, there was a big bang, and the house shook."

Two others in the house escaped with minor injuries. The plane was carrying a four-member crew and an off-duty pilot. Among the 44 passengers killed was a woman whose husband died in the World Trade Center attacks of Sept. 11, 2001.

A publicist for jazz musician Chuck Mangione says two members of Mangione's band were among those killed on the plane.

Publicist Sanford Brokaw identifies the band members as Gerry Niewood and Coleman Mellett.

Though no statement has been released by Mangione, who vanished years ago due to stress apparently caused by a licensing deal leading to people knowing who the hell he was, a note written on the wall of a bathroom stall at an Arlen, TX, Megalo-Mart read: "I'm in shock over the horrible, heartbreaking tragedy."

[Ran]

Never heard of Mangione.

When first I heard about this I was a little worried because my mom is supposed to be flying back to Buffalo this weekend and my uncle travels to Buffalo a lot.

On a side note, the accident was within a mile of the home of 3 members of the Buffalo Sabres, including Thomas Vanek.

[anarky]

He's a passable jazz trumpeter. I think what Newsbot is joking about is a subplot during an early season of King of the Hill (when it was funny), where Mangione was the spokesman for Megalo-Mart (an obvious Wal-Mart spoof). In the last episode I know of dealing with it, the pressure had gotten to Mangione and he was actually living hermit-style in the local Megalo-Mart Hank and his family and neighbors frequented. He was found out by the four main characters when Dale was brought in to exterminate what the management thought were mice (but they left him to live in peace in his cave behind the paper towels).

Mangione played himself, and it was a brilliant self-parody that would've rivaled anything Shatner or Hasselhoff have ever done, if anyone knew who he was. I didn't even know he was a real guy until about three years later.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chuck_Mangione

I can't find a pic of him from the show, which is odd, because he appeared in almost every show for a full season or two (even if mostly on TV commercials).

<Edit>: Looks like he first appeared on the show in 1997, and the episode in question was from 2003, which surprised me, since it's a great episode and that's when the show was fast on the decline.

[Ran]

I never got into Kind of the Hill even though I like Mike Judge's work in Office Space and Beavis & Butthead.

[Senor JabbaJohnL]

He still makes various background appearances from time to time; on the last one, where Luanne was finally animated as being pregnant and then had the baby, there was a cardboard cutout of him at the Mega-Lo-Mart. The show was still overall pretty shitty (despite some alright parts) but there you have it. Maybe when it goes to ABC, it will have a Scrubs-style renaissance, but I ain't hopeful.