People talk 4/3

Pilot error, snow blamed in plane crash

JACKSON, Wyo. -- Pilot error and blizzard conditions are to blame for the 2000 crash-landing of a plane at Jackson Hole Airport containing actress Sandra Bullock, who was slightly injured.

The National Transportation Safety Board's determination of the probable cause was available Monday on the agency's Web site.

Bullock, the star of such films as "Speed," "28 Days" and "Miss Congeniality," suffered slight whiplash, but she, another passenger and the two pilots walked away after their twin-engine, 10-seat Hawker Siddeley missed the runway and crashed into 2 feet of snow early on the morning of Dec. 20, 2000.

The pilot failed to follow approach procedures when he decided to land even though the runway was not in sight, the report concluded. Contributing factors were the crew's failure to turn on the runway lights remotely, along with blinding snow and darkness.

Bullock, 37, and a friend, singer Bob Schneider, were en route from her home in Austin, Texas, to spend the Christmas holiday in Jackson, where she also owns a house.

Singer inducted into hall five years after death

DENVER -- Nearly five years after his death, John Denver was inducted into the Colorado Performing Arts Hall of Fame.

The singer was named to the hall late Monday, joining Douglas Fairbanks Sr., Glenn Miller, Alfred Lunt, Lynn Fontanne and others.

"I think John would have been very happy. He always wanted his music to live on," said Annie Denver, his first wife.

She also was pleased with "Almost Heaven: Songs and Stories of John Denver," a musical that tells his life story. It opened last week at the Denver Center for the Performing Arts, and a performance preceded Monday's ceremony.

-- From wire reports