NTSB holds briefing after Monday's plane crash in Lee County

All right

Good afternoon

My name is Ryan Enders R Y A N E

N D E R S

and I'm an aviation accident investigator with the National Transportation

Safety Board the NTSB

The NTSB investigates all aviation and major rail highway pipeline

and marine accidents in the US

We're here to determine what happened why it happened and

how we can prevent it from happening again

I'd like to say thanks first off to Lee County

Emergency Management Lee County Fire Marshals and Lee County Sheriff's

Office

In addition uh thanks to First Health EMS Deep River

Fire Department Moncure Fire North Carolina State Highway Patrol UNC

Aircare and all of the other first responders that assisted

out on the scene

My sincere condolences go to the family the friends and

this entire community that have been affected by this tragedy

I arrived on scene today at about 11:15 this morning

Uh so the information that I have currently is limited

but I'll share what I can with you all and

I'll take some questions at the end too

At about 1:30 p.m. on July 7th November 5656 Mike

a Cires SR-22 aircraft airplane impacted open terrain near Stanford

North Carolina

There are 4 occupants on board and they were all

fatally injured

The airplane departed from Merritt Island Florida at about 11:03

Eastern time and was en route to Raleigh Executive Jetport

near Sanford North Carolina

About 5 to 6 miles from the airport the airplane

advised a local fixed-based operator about a loss of communications

and navigational equipment

Shortly after they advised the fixed base operator that they

had engine issues

The airplane was located in a private field about 1

mile from the airport

On scene with us we have the FAA and we

have representatives from the airframe and the engine manufacturer

The airplane is going to be recovered and taken to

a secured facility in Tennessee for further examination

Our on scene work will conclude tomorrow morning and then

in Tennessee all aspects of the engine and the airframe

will be examined

Perishial evidence has been collected on scene and we're already

in the process of sending that back to Washington DC

for evaluation and examination

That includes things like um recorders on the airplane um

And other non-volatile um information

We look at all aspects of what we're involved including

the pilot the airplane and the environment

So the pilot we look at the past 72 hours

of of history to see things like fatigue um

Any changes in lifestyle or anything like that the airplane

the engine and the airframe which we've already started to

do and the environment any kind of ATC communications or

uh any other weather phenomenon that or phenomenon that were

happening at the time of the accident

Once we leave here a preliminary report will be published

in about 3 weeks and then a final report will

take about 18 months to complete

If anyone has witnessed the accident or has information regarding

the accident we request that you contact witness at NTSB.gov

I have time for some questions

Just state your name and the affiliate for me

ABC who was flying the plane at the time of

the crash The pilot was flying flying the plane flying

the plane at the time of the crash

I I don't release identities or names

So this is separate from the family or was this

I mean can you tell I'm not gonna talk about

the occupants on board

I can just tell you that all four of the

occupants were fatally injured

Um information regarding the occupants on board should be directed

towards the sheriff's office

Can you say anything about their flight history their flight

experience We're still looking into the pilot's flight history um

We have the pilot's logbooks um

But not all of the information appears to have been

in his main logbook which is not uncommon

Sometimes their information is stored online

I only have the physical copies currently so that's going

to take some time to get the rest of his

flight history

I'm Dan West with CBS 17

The SR-22 is equipped with a parachute system

Was that deployed Do you know why yet It does

not appear that the parachute deployed

Uh we're not certain why yet

Um sometimes that's an altitude thing um

There's many factors that could play into that but it

does not appear that the parachute deployed

Is there any indication of what altitude the plane may

have had discovered engine problems We don't have that yet

So the pilot reported communication and transponder issues and that's

playing a part in that

Heidi Kirk WRAL of course you know for family and

friends of the people in that plane everyone wants to

know what their final moments look like

We've heard theories like maybe there was a hypoxia instance

or that that plane lost gas

Is there anything you can tell us about their final

moments No nothing I can tell you at this point

It's too early in the investigation

Unfortunately

Maggie Newland with CBS 17 can you talk about the

state of the plane destroyed Yeah it's it's it's pretty

beat up

Um it's all in within one location which is um

helpful

Um we have all the components of the airplane right

there in one spot and it's contained to a diameter

I'd say about a 50 yard circle

Richard Strausing from the News and Observer

Can you talk more about communication What was it He

was comm communicating with somebody at the fixed base operator

here at the airport

Um I can't give you names or anything like that

um but yeah he was talking to somebody here at

the airport who was attempting to help clear the air

traffic for their arrival

And you said there was communication or transponder issues and

then also

They initially um relayed that they had communication and transponder

issues and then shortly after stated that they had engine

problems

Is that something that commonly goes together No not always

Had the plane Needs Dessent or was it was it

descending

Yes we this was the final destination for for the

airplane um so it was coming in to land here

as expected when

Just from looking at the scene from you know images

up above it looked you know really tough

I mean we saw some tough things from just back

at our station

How are people doing after responding to this It's a

tragedy by all means

I mean it's a devastating blow to everybody the community

and

But we're gonna figure out what happened

Is there any sense in timeline between the call about

the mechanical issues and when the impact occurred The call

came in and they advised that they were about 7

miles out at the time from the airport

Were they trying to make any type of emergency landing

or trying to get into the airport as normal you

understand I need to clarify all that

It's the parachute system usually automatic I know we're not

aware whether or not it deployed or is that something

the pilot has to do

The pilot would have to initiate the the parachute sequence

I have time for one more question

I'll take it

Is there anything that was unique about this instance or

so far what you've uncovered from the investigation They're all

unique

Every accident is different

Um we have a lot to go through yet

It's going to take several months and that's why final

reports take as long as they do

Um so a lot of challenges ahead of us but

nothing that we can't conquer

To determine that there was fuel in the tanks or

on the ground still working that out

What is the one that's gonna be the last one

Thank you so much

Thank you