

The airplane collided with a car but narrowly missed any nearby buildings, power lines and a propane tank. Witnesses saw it dive nose-first toward the ground, Latson said. The air traffic controller again directed the aircraft to go around," said NTSB investigator Tom Latson.Īs it was making a third attempt to land at Hobby, the airplane apparently stalled and lost power. "On the second approach, they were also too high. According to the Federal Aviation Administration, the airplane is owned by Safe Aviation LLC in Moore, Okla.Īn investigator with the NTSB on Thursday said the tower at Hobby Airport told the pilot the airplane was approaching the runway at too high an altitude.
#Recent plane crashes 2016 license
They ended it with: "Race in Peace."įAA records list a Dana Frances Gray from Moore, Okla., as having a license to be a private pilot. We have no words to describe the loss to the (Thunder Valley Raceway Park) family, as the Gray family have been long time racers, sponsors, and friends at the track," they said in the Facebook post. "Everyone at (Thunder Valley Raceway Park) would like to extend our deepest sympathies to the Gray family. identified the victims as Tony Gray, his wife Dana and brother Jerry. However, in a Facebook post on Thursday, the Thunder Valley Raceway Park in Noble, Okla. Latson confirmed the pilot was a woman and that he did meet with the family of the three victims.He did not disclose their names or any additional information about them. Investigators do not currently know if the handle was pulled, but a digital record of what happened will be analyzed at a later date, according to the NTSB.

The parachute, which is activated via a handle in the plane's cockpit, was still in its casing, although the rocket motor used to deploy the chute was ejected on impact. The plane comes equipped with an emergency parachute, which did not deploy before the crash. Latson noted fuel tanks on the plane were completely disrupted, so officials will have to investigate the fuel lines to see if an empty tank was a factor in the crash. Thursday for the flight to Houston, and crashed approximately 3 hours later. The airplane departed from the airport in Norman at about 10:15 a.m. “I have confirmed with the fixed-base operator at the Norman (Oklahoma) airport that the plane was topped, it should give five hours of flight time,” Latson said when asked if the plane crashed due to lack of fuel. It's unclear to Latson why this instruction was made. The pilot was also instructed to fly into a different runway on the second attempt. "Witnesses saw the plane bank to the left and impact at the 6800 block of Telephone," Latson said. He said that he didn't know the level of the pilot's experience or how the pilot flew. During that second approach to runway 35, the pilot was again instructed to go around because the pilot appeared to be too high." It was during the fly around on the third entry that the plane began to fly slow and low, according to witnesses that spoke to authorities. "The pilot made a right turn, was directed to land on runway 35, to the north.

"And for some reason, the air traffic controller directed them to go around," Latson said. Latson told reporters noon Friday that the air traffic controller at Hobby airport directed the pilot to fly around the airport and retry landing a second time. The controller told the pilot that the plane was too high up on the second approach and would have to try re-entry a third time. National Transportation Safety Board investigator Tom Latson said during a Friday press conference that security footage from the store revealed the plane was “relatively wing-level, relatively nose-level and spinning counterclockwise to the left” when it crashed onto a car in the parking lot at 6860 block of Telephone Road.
