The full report on why a plane crashed Saturday just minutes after taking off from the Dalton Municipal Airport, killing the pilot from Chattanooga, won’t be ready for at least a year, but an initial review of what happened should be online within a week or so, officials said.
National Transportation Safety Board (NTSB) spokesman Eric Weiss said Monday that investigators are still working to determine the cause of the crash about 4:30 p.m. that killed Donald Lee Holbrook, 52. Holbrook was flying a Piper PA 31, Pressurized Twin Engine Navajo, which went down less than a mile from the airport where he had kept the plane for at least a year.
Witnesses said the plane flew low over East View Drive, barely clearing trees and power lines, and seemed to try to turn as it approached Sane Road but instead flew nose down toward the ground.
Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) and NTSB officials were on the scene on Sunday. The preliminary investigation should be posted at www.ntsb.gov within 10 days of the crash, Weiss said.
“That will describe the most basic of facts, and then the real investigation will start,” he said.
The in-depth investigation centers on three main components that could have contributed to the crash: the individual, the machinery and the operating environment such as weather and other conditions.
“We determine probable cause for the accident, and then we make any recommendations that could prevent this sort of accident from happening in the future,” he said.
Holbrook owned Holbrook Performance Parts Inc. of Chattanooga, which sells engine parts for dragsters, monster trucks and other vehicles, according to its website.
Local News
July 3, 2012
Initial plane crash investigation results expected in days
Full report could take a year
- Local News
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Still missing: Riders detour to visit with mother of MIA Vietnam vet
Karoni Forrester, of Texas, with the National League of POW/MIA Families, left, speaks with Christine Jones, whose son Bobby, a soldier in the Vietnam War, is still classified as MIA, on Tuesday. (Misty Watson/The Daily Citizen)
At 96-and-a-half years old, Christine Jones still remembers well that day in 1972 when she learned her son was missing in action.
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