Preliminary report released on Albany fatal plane crash

ALBANY — The National Transportation Safety Board (NTSB) has issued its preliminary report on the crash of a small airplane at the Southwest Regional Airport Jan. 30, which fatally injured three people.

According to witnesses and NTSB officials, after lifting off within the first 1,000 feet of 6,601-foot runway, the “experimental” four-seater Lancair IV-P turbo-prop airplane began to bank sharply to one side, reaching a 90-degree bank as it climbed to treetop height. The aircraft then began to pitch downward while maintaining its degree of bank until it struck the ground.

The NTSB report states that a witness about a quarter mile north of the accident reported that the airplane sounded “normal” until shortly before impact, when the engine noise became louder.

The report does not speculate whether the banking of the airplane or the engine noise were issues relevant to the crash, but describes specific parts of the airplane which were later found scattered along a “ground scar” some 170 feet in length. Damaged parts noted in the report included propellers and propeller hub, turbine blades, wing tips and wings, both of which were separated from the fuselage at their roots.

Doug Brazy, a safety inspector for NTSB, earlier said that inspectors had created a map of the debris site to assist in the “laborious” task of determining the cause or causes of the crash. The investigation could continue for a year or more.

“It’s not really a reconstruction, but what we call a ‘layout’ of the pieces,” Brazy said after the incident, “We hope we can learn a lot from that.”

Killed in the incident were David Britt Knight, 40, who in December had purchased the used airplane for the Art Sign Company; Brittany Kerfoot, 30, a teacher at Lake Park Elementary School, and Kevin Coalson, 49, a former trooper with the Georgia State Patrol where he served as a helicopter pilot.

A coroner’s report has stated that all three victims died instantly in the crash.

In 2007, more than 15 years previous to Knight’s purchase of the airplane, the Lancair made a crash landing at Parowan Airport in Utah, NTSB records show. No injuries were reported in that incident.