Investigators explain Iredell County plane crash
I would like to express my most sincere condolences on
behalf of the National Transportation Safety Board to the friends
and family of the deceased pilot
I'd also like to express my gratitude for the neighbors
who came to the aid of the pilot before Ems
could arrive
I'd like to thank the North Carolina highway patrol the
Iredale County Ems and Fire Department the Troutman Fire Department
and any other local agencies that were assisting on scene
Yesterday
N TSB has a federal mandate to investigate all civil
aviation accidents in the United States and to determine the
probable cause
We do this to try to prevent these accidents from
happening
Again
We arrived here on scene this morning and we are
still very much in the preliminary portions of what will
be a very methodical investigation
The fact is we know them thus far and again
these are preliminary November 539 Mike Alpha which is a
Piper pa a 46 with one person on board crashed
while returning from a local flight out of the Lake
Norman Air Park at approximately 1213 yesterday December 31
Yeah the pilot had departed the air park at approximately
11:52 a.m. and headed northwest for about 30 miles at
3000 ft before returning to land at the air park
No distress calls were made and the pilot called a
two mile final which is a very normal radio call
to the area track
I am assisted here on scene by the Federal Aviation
Administration by lycoming engines and soon piper aircraft
We're gonna be looking at all of the information we
can gather here on scenes which includes witness um site
examination wreckage examination all of the perishable evidence we can
get here on CNN in this area before we relocate
and recover the aircraft to a salvage facility in Atlanta
Georgia
We will be doing that tomorrow
We'll be looking at the man the machine and the
environment to figure out what led to this accident
Preliminary indications from some audio we have heard and from
the examination of the propeller
Give the impression that this engine was not producing power
at the time of the accident
We'll know more after we complete our engine examination in
Atlanta in about 10 days we'll publish a preliminary report
with the facts as we know them after this on
site portion of our investigation a full report will take
about another 18 months followed by the issuance of the
probable cause by the safety board
Um We have found all parts of the aircraft on
site which tells us that this was not an in
flight breakup
Um If you have any questions I will take those
now and then I will continue with our work on
scene plan
Yes I was not
So the question um is about the engine and whether
it was producing power or not the initial indications we
have from two audio recordings we have of the accident
and from uh the appearance of the propellers indicate that
the engine may not have been producing power at the
time of the accident
That would have been an emergency situation if the engine
was not producing power
Yes the pilot made a radio call on a two
mile final
And if the engine was not producing power that means
things went bad very quickly after his call of a
two mile final
The fact that he did call a very normal radio
call at two mile final indicates that things were fine
when he was two miles out just a mile from
here
The witness indicate witnesses who witnessed the accident indicated that
he came in wings level but at about a 15
degree downward angle um that indicates that he was in
control of the airplane that it was wings level
Any other questions I'm not gonna ask you to speculate
on anything
But can you kind of talk a little bit specifically
about what kind of elements you guys will be investigating
in days to come That could have been you know
that that could play an effect in an in an
incident like this
So what we set out to do at the N
TSB is not to determine what went wrong but to
prove that everything is right
So I'm gonna try to prove that everything is right
with my pilot
That's the man of the man machine and environment
I'm gonna try to prove that he was healthy that
he had had sleep um that he was not under
the influence of any kind of drug or medicine not
having any health event um that he was proficient and
current in the airplane and adequately trained for the kind
of fine he was gonna do
I'm gonna make sure uh the weather didn't play a
part uh wildlife air you know uh bird strike uh
didn't play a part and I'm going to be looking
at the airplane to determine that there was no failure
on the airplane
Uh what I can't prove is what I'm going to
dig deeper into and that is usually how our process
works in uh determining uh the failures that led to
the accident on scene will be looking at fuel fueling
records
We'll be looking through the log books uh talking with
any witnesses um and collecting all of the perishable evidence
before we leave after the fact where we have time
is when we'll get dig deeper into the actual aircraft
for the folks around here who might be wanting answers
and might not have any familiarity with something like this
Can you give them a feel for how long the
timeline might be for something like that to actually have
more answers Um It's it's about an 18 month process
before we get everything back
Uh Autopsies toxicology
Um Any any material that we have to send for
further examination any non volatile memory on board the airplane
that needs analysis all of these things take time
It's it's a long very methodical process that we follow
What I would ask your viewers is that if anybody
has ring doorbell video or any other video or audio
that they could share with us
Um And it doesn't have to be video it can
be audio
I would ask that they would reach out to NTS
or witness at N tsb.gov just like it sounds witness
at N tsb.gov
That would be very helpful to us
Anything else All right
Thank you very much and um I'll get back to
work
on
Ok
No