Feds To Review Video Of Fiery Plane Crash
DETROIT (WWJ/AP) - Federal investigators will review airport video of a fiery plane crash that killed the 19-year-old Michigan pilot, his mother, stepfather and brother-in-law.
The National Transportation Safety Board has completed the on-scene phase of its probe into Friday's crash at Oakland County International Airport, NTSB spokesman Terry Williams told The Associated Press Monday.
Killed in the wreck was Troy Brothers, a U.S. Naval Academy recruit who received his pilot's license last month, his 58-year-old stepfather, James Haley, and 34-year-old brother-in-law, Jamie Jose. Brothers' 53-year-old mother, Sandra Haley, died at an area hospital.
By Sunday, the NTSB had completed documenting and taking photos of the wrecked Cessna 172. Investigators also spoke with the manufacturer of the single-engine Cessna and the maker of the plane's engine.
"There is some video of the accident from a security camera," Williams said. "We will be getting it - hopefully this week - to see what the camera captured. We're in the very early stages of the investigation."
Brothers and his family took off about 1:40 p.m. Friday from the airport in Waterford Township, about 27 miles northwest of Detroit, and had elevated only about 100 feet from the ground when the young pilot radioed the control tower.
In a recording on LiveATC.Net, Brothers can be heard saying "we're a little over weight ... we're going to have to come back and land." Moments later the four-seat plane crashed in a field near an airport runway.
"That's something we will listen to," Williams said of Brothers' transmission.
LiveATC.Net provides live air traffic-control broadcasts from control towers and radar facilities around the world, according to its website.
Brothers and the Haleys lived in the Detroit suburb of Fraser. He had been accepted into the Naval Academy's 2017 graduating class, said Judy Campbell, a spokeswoman for the military academy in Annapolis, Md.
His induction day was to be Thursday, Campbell said.
The Oakland County airport is used for corporate, business and private flying, said Dave VanderVeen, director of central services for Oakland County. It also has air charters and air freight, and is the state's second busiest airport after Detroit Metropolitan Airport.
VanderVeen said the last fatal crash at Oakland County International was in 2006. A flight instructor and his student were killed when a single-engine plane belonging to a flight school crashed at the airport.
MORE: Too Much Weight May Have Caused Fatal Plane Crash
4 Killed In Plane Crash At Oakland County Airport
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