Why have these deaths not received more coverage

[malaise]

These are big men in Perdue and Georgia Rethug circles. Weren't they Huckabee supporters? This happened last month.

http://www6.lexisnexis.com/publisher/EndUser?Action=UserDisplayFullDocument&orgId=574&topicId=100020422&docId=l:741871847&isRss=true

A small plane carrying six people, including Paulding County Commissioner Hal Echols and two prominent Paulding developers with ties to Georgia Gov. Sonny Perdue, crashed Friday morning in Mount Airy, N.C., killing everyone aboard.

The men were bound for a hunting trip in Virginia when their Beechcraft King Air C90A made at least one approach to the Mount Airy airport in rain and low visibility and "came in too high, then veered off and were coming back when they crashed," said Federal Aviation Administration spokeswoman Laura Brown.

John Wesley Rakestraw, 50, a developer and close friend of Perdue who held a fund-raiser at his home for the governor in 2006, was believed to be piloting the plane when it crashed, said John Shelton, director of emergency service in Surry County, N.C.

But investigators for the National Transportation Safety Board would not confirm the identity of the pilot of the twin-engine turboprop.

Another of the crash victims, Steve Simpson, 46, a Paulding County developer and friend of the governor and Georgia House of Representatives Speaker Glenn Richardson, also is a licensed pilot.

Others killed on the flight were Frank Ruggiero, 52, of Acworth, a project manager for Facility Program Management Inc., of Smyrna, which is building the new Paulding County courthouse; Tony Gunter, 46, of Acworth, who worked for Rakestraw's Dallas construction company, Raker Construction; and Robert Butler, 49, of Chamblee, who worked for the Georgia Bank in Powder Springs.

The men had planned to fly to Mount Airy and drive to Primland, a hunting and golf resort in Meadows of Dan, Va., about 25 miles north of the Mount Airy airport.

"The plane was loaded with their gear," said Shelton. "They had shotguns so they were probably planning to shoot quail or rabbits."