The National Transportation Safety Board shared early details from its investigation into a plane crash that killed two people in Akron 24 hours ago.
The afternoon briefing was held by Aaron McCarter, an aviation accident investigator with the NTSB.
Watch:
The occupants of the plane were killed. A home on a residential street was hit and destroyed, but no one in the home or on the ground was injured.
McCarter and his team arrived this morning to begin their investigation. An aircraft recovery team arrived on scene in the late afternoon.
During the briefing, McCarter said one of the occupants was a certified flight instructor, and the other was the aircraft's pilot/owner. They were on a training flight, during which they did standard flight training maneuvers without incident.
Upon returning to the airport, McCarter said preliminary information indicates they made two approaches, and it appears they made a go-around on the first pass. He said during the second approach, they overflew the runway and during that time, "something upset the aircraft," and it was seen by witnesses and doorbell cameras spiraling out of the sky for about a thousand feet before crashing into the home with three people inside the house.
McCarter said it was very windy yesterday. They’ll look at the weather, among other things, like data from the flight tower. They're also working with the builders of the plane’s engine and its fuselage to gain more insight.
Late Friday afternoon, a moving crew that McCarter said are experts in aviation accident recovery were picking up the pieces of the plane. McCarter said they will move those parts to the Akron Fulton Airport, where they will go over all of it piece by piece.
The Summit County Medical Examiner's Office said the two people who died were both males, in their 30’s, from out of town and that they’re looking for dental records to help in their investigation.
McCarter said the father and kids were definitely lucky to get out of the home alive. "We still have two deceased pilots so we have to keep that in mind, but I don’t want that to take away from from the fact that these three individuals have quite a story and were able to make it out," said McCarter.
He said it will take a week to 10 days for its preliminary report, then a year to 14 months for the full report with a probable cause of the accident. McCarter also told us he's looking for witnesses and video that anyone has. So, if you have that email Witness@NTSB.gov.
The investigation is in the very early stages of a lengthy, detailed process.
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