National Transportation Safety Board investigators continued to sort through burned rubble and pieces of a cargo plane on Thursday following a fiery crash nearly a half mile away from a Toledo Express Airport runway.
Federal investigators arrived on scene Wednesday afternoon to take over the crash site in Bubba’s Diesel and Auto Repair parking lot, where multiple emergency crews responded to the fatal crash early Wednesday morning. Two crew members on board were declared dead at the scene. Law enforcement officials identified the deceased as Douglas Taylor, 72, and Donald Peterson, Sr., 69, both of Laredo, Texas, though the Lucas County Coroner’s Office as of Thursday had not officially confirmed those identities.
National Transportation Safety Board spokesman Terry Williams told The Blade on Thursday that investigators are now completing their “on-ground” portion of the investigation, which includes initial fact-gathering. The agency is leading the investigation.
“They’re doing some site documentation of the aircraft itself, where the aircraft came to rest ... there will be some mapping in the area with a drone and they’re going to be there until probably late Friday or early Saturday,” Mr. Williams said. “There’s no witnesses, there’s no video that we have at this time — but that can certainly change at any minute.”
The Ohio State Highway Patrol says the Convair CV-440 plane owned by Barker Aeromotive, Inc., was loaded with automotive parts. FAA records report the plane was registered specifically in Mr. Taylor’s name.
Autopsies took place Thursday, and the coroner’s office confirmed both individuals died from multiple blunt-force injuries. The deaths were ruled to be accidential. Final verification of identities and the results of toxicology reports are pending.
Mr. Taylor and Mr. Peterson made their way from Laredo to Millington, Tenn. — an airport just outside of Memphis. From there, they were traveling to Toledo Express Airport and were set to land on Runway 25.
Wednesday’s flight was an unscheduled flight, according to Toledo-Lucas County Port Authority spokesman Kayla Lewandowski.
“Cargo operations at Toledo Express Airport are largely unscheduled in the sense that the flights operate on an on-demand basis instead of having a regularly set schedule,” Ms. Lewandowski said. “For example, American Airlines would have a regularly set schedule, as the flight times are set in advance.”
On Wednesday, Mr. Peterson’s wife of 25-years, Kathy Peterson, said her husband was an experienced pilot who frequently took that route. While he would have stayed in Toledo overnight, he would have returned home the next day, she said.
Automotive parts are sent from Mexico to Laredo, and Mr. Peterson and his co-pilot would then fly the parts to various cities across the country, she explained.
“They’re just like the mail guy,” she said, adding her husband was really a home-body even though he traveled a couple times a week.
NTSB investigators determined the plane did not have a black box — which records flight data and happenings from the cockpit — Mr. Williams said.
Mr. Williams said part of his agency’s investigation will look at whether if it is typical for such aircraft to not have such a device.
“I’m surprised it does not have a black box. Obviously, the black box is proved to be an extremely useful tool in aviation investigations and I don’t know if this plane was required to have a black box or not,” said James Hall, a former NTSB board chairman and current managing partner of Hall & Associates in Washington.
Mr. Hall noted he had not researched details about the Toledo crash, but he was speaking generally regarding such aviation incidents.
Mr. Hall was nominated by President Bill Clinton to be an NTSB member in 1993, and to serve as its chairman in 1994. He led the board through January, 2001.
Lt. Shaun Robinson of the state patrol said troopers will be providing scene security as the investigation continues. Investigators are expected to be on scene for several days.
Investigators will look into the pilot’s history and the plane’s manufacturer, as well as analyze potential missing aircraft extremities or flight control surfaces — such as stabilizers. They’ll look at the fatigue of the plane’s metal and the engine power at impact, as well as weather conditions, according to the FAA. All documentation and preliminary findings are withheld from public discussion and investigations are not discussed with the media until a final report has been issued, the FAA said in a release regarding aircraft accidents.
The age of the plane — it was 62 years old — shouldn’t necessarily be an automatic concern, Mr. Hall said.
“The NTSB will send an investigator there to do a thorough investigation of the matter and if there are any concerns that may be developed out of the investigation,” Mr. Hall said.
In September alone, the NTSB has completed at least eight preliminary reports for aviation accidents — including a Sept. 4 non-fatal incident in which a plane was substantially damaged during a forced landing following a loss of engine power near Van Wert, Ohio.
The agency will release a preliminary report with initial findings in about 10 days, although it will not provide analysis or cause of the crash, an agency spokesman said. The investigation will continue and the final determination will take roughly a year to a year-and-a-half.
First Published September 12, 2019, 1:56 p.m.
