The small plane crashed March 13 into a heavily wooded area in Mesquite, officials say.
The small plane crashed March 13 into a heavily wooded area in Mesquite, officials say.
The small plane crashed March 13 into a heavily wooded area in Mesquite, officials say.
MESQUITE, Texas — The National Transportation Safety Board Tuesday released a preliminary report after a pilot was killed in a small plane crash in Mesquite last month.
The plane, a Cessna CitationJet, crashed after taking off from the Mesquite Metro Airport shortly after 7:30 a.m. March 13, while en route to the Addison Airport to pick up passengers and continue to an undetermined location, according to the plane’s owner in the NTSB report. The pilot, who was killed, was the only casualty, according to the report.
The fixed based operator manager at the Mesquite Airport reported the pilot had requested a fuel top-off before departing, and the airplane was fueled with 224 gallons of Jet-A fuel, the report stated.
The report found the plane entered a right turn after departing from the runway, climbed to about 500 feet above ground level, began descending while still turning, and crashed into terrain in a heavily wooded area, leaving the plane “destroyed.”
The plane had been flying for 31 seconds, according to the report. No distress calls were ever received from the pilot, according to the report.
“Witnesses reported they saw the airplane in a descending, right bank turn. There were no reports of fire or smoke trailing the airplane,” the report stated. “A post-impact fire consumed portions of the airplane. All major components were located in the debris path.”
The wreckage was taken off-site for further examination, the report stated.
The plane’s cockpit voice recorder was recovered and sent to the National Transportation Safety Board Vehicle Recorders Laboratory in Washington D.C. for processing and readout, and the Full Authority Digital Engine Control modules from the plane’s engines were sent to the manufacture’s facility to download data, according to the report.
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