A cargo plane that crashed Sept. 11 on approach to Toledo Express Airport initially struck trees about 630 feet east of where it hit the ground and vehicles in a commercial parking lot in Springfield Township, a preliminary report from the National Transportation Safety Board states.
Initial tree damage was identified about 55 feet above ground level, the safety board said, with multiple tree breaks then observed along a flight path through a wooded area east of the crash site in the parking lot at Bubba’s Diesel & Auto Repair, 10101 Garden Road. The Convair 440 airplane then left a ground-impact scar west of the wooded area that “led to the accident site,” according to the report.
The initial tree strike was about 0.65 mile northeast of the approach threshold for Runway 25 at Toledo Express, while the crash occurred about 0.12 mile closer to the airport and “near the extended centerline of the runway,” the safety board said. The impact path, it said, “was oriented on a westerly heading.”
Douglas Taylor, 72, and Donald Peterson, Sr., 69, both of Laredo, Texas, were killed in the fiery 2:39 a.m. crash involving an unscheduled cargo flight that had originated in Laredo but made a stop at an airport in Millington, Tenn., outside Memphis.
The flight had been cleared to land about 2:35 a.m. when it was about 5 miles southeast of the airport, and its pilot’s acknowledgement of that clearance was the last communication air traffic controllers at the airport received from the plane.
“No problems or anomalies were reported during the flight,” the safety board said.
The Ohio State Highway Patrol said the plane was loaded with automotive parts, was owned by Barker Aeromotive, Inc., and was registered in Mr. Taylor’s name. The NTSB report identified its operator as Ferreteria e Implementos San Francisco, which in 2004 was fined $20,000 — half of it suspended — by the U.S. Department of Transportation for operating as an air common carrier without required licensing.
As is typical for such documents, the NTSB preliminary report contained no investigative details about the aircraft, its pilots, or the flight, which was operated under nighttime visual flight conditions but with a instrument flight rules flight plan on file. Such operations are normal for chartered cargo flights.
Safety board investigations of such accidents often take a year or more to complete, although statements may be issued before completion if an investigation reveals details that, if publicized, could alert aviators to factors that could prevent other accidents. Earlier this month, the NTSB issued its final report for a Jan. 15, 2018, helicopter crash in Wood County’s Troy Township that killed a pilot and a power line inspector.
First Published September 21, 2019, 5:54 p.m.
