Safety agency: Washington small plane crashed on test flight

SEATTLE (AP) — A federal security company mentioned Saturday that 4 individuals who died when a small airplane crashed north of Seattle final month had been conducting check flights to collect baseline data earlier than the Cessna 208B was modified with a brand new aerodynamic drag discount system.

The Nationwide Transportation Security Board launched its preliminary report Saturday on the Nov. 18 crash in Snohomish, Washington.

The crew of the Cessna 208B had already achieved three days of check flights, however the day earlier than the crash they ended early as a result of one of many crew members felt in poor health. The crew went again up the next day and was testing the Cessna’s aft center-of-gravity stall traits when the airplane crashed, the company mentioned.

Witnesses mentioned the airplane broke up in flight and descended in a near-vertical corkscrew to the bottom and several other witnesses reported seeing a white plume of smoke because the airplane broke into items, the NTSB report mentioned. The company has beforehand mentioned a wing broke away from the airplane through the crash.

The Snohomish County Medical Examiner beforehand recognized the victims as three males from Washington state: Nathan Precup, 33, of Seattle; Nate Lachendro, 49, of Gig Harbor; and Scott Brenneman, 52, of Roy; in addition to David Newton, 67, of Wichita, Kansas.

Raisbeck Engineering of Seattle was having the Cessna 208B check flown earlier than modifying the plane, in line with a press release from Raisbeck President Hal Chrisman.

He mentioned the plane had not but been modified. The flight crew included two “highly-experienced” check pilots, a flight check director and an instrumentation engineer who had been accumulating “baseline plane efficiency knowledge,” Chrisman mentioned.

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