Witnesses who saw 2003 crash said engine did not sound right prior to stall

On August 8, 2003, Col. Michael J. O'Toole, USAF, an ATP-rated pilot with more than 7,000 hours under his belt, his wife Pamela and daughter Shannon boarded the family 1964 Cessna 182G, N2064R, (similar to file photo below) for a flight from Buena Terra Airport, a private field in northwest Shawnee County, near Topeka, to Atkinson Municipal Airport, near Pittsburg, Kansas.

As soon as he started his takeoff roll, a witness at the airport reported that the aircraft appeared to have problems developing airspeed, and took much longer to take off than usual. One of the passengers on the aircraft later stated that the engine did not sound right, and the stall warning went off twice. Soon after that the left wing dipped, then the right wing, and the aircraft crashed into trees at the end of runway 35, coming to rest inverted on top of its left wing and left wing strut. The pilot did not survive extensive head and brain injuries, but his wife and daughter survived.

The NTSB released its final probable cause report on Friday, after determining that the crash was due to pilot error due to the pilot's failure to maintain adequate airspeed and altitude after takeoff.

"It's worded that way because it's not necessarily saying that the pilot caused the stall," said NTSB spokesman Keith Holloway. "It was his failure to maintain the airspeed, which is possible during a stall."

O'Toole, 51, was at the time the commander of the Kansas National Guard's 190th Air Refueling Wing, which operates KC-135 refueling aircraft.

"I know Mike was a good pilot, and I have flown with him a number of times in that airplane," said Michael's father Donald O'Toole, a retired Colonel and also the state's Aviation Officer, to The Kansas City Star. "From that field where he took off, he had plenty of room and he wasn't overloaded."

"My own feeling -- and I wasn't there -- was knowing Mike and knowing the situation that something developed at a point where no response was possible," O'Toole said. "It was either fly into the power line or try to get over the power line. I suppose most anybody would try to get over the power line."

FMI: http://www2.ntsb.gov/ntsb/brief2.asp?ev_id=20030814X01338&ntsbno=CHI03FA251&akey=1