Accident Resulted In The Fatal Injury Of Five People On Board

In a media briefing held Thursday, the NTSB indicated that the Beechcraft Premier IA jet which went down late Wednesday aborted a landing attempt and struck a power pole before impacting the ground.

The briefing was given by NTSB Board Member Robert L. Sumwalt (pictured). He said the airplane apparently was attempting to land on runway 10 at McDuffie County Airport near August, GA, "and for reasons that we intend to find out, the flight crew elected to discontinue landing. The aircraft continued airborne off the departure end of Runway 10 and it struck a cast concrete utility pole that's located about a quarter of a mile from the departure end of the runway." He said the pole is about 60 feet high, and the airplane impacted it near its top.

Sumwalt said the left wing sheared off. "Fuel apparently began spilling out of that wing" causing a fire. "The aircraft continued airborne for another quarter of a mile.  It went through a strand of trees before crashing into a wooded area." He said the length of the main wreckage distribution site is about 100 yards long.  He said the airplane was almost completely destroyed by fire.

Sumwalt confirmed there were 5 passengers and 2 crew members aboard the plane. He said "our information right now is that there are five fatalities," but that it was not the mission of the board to release names of those who were fatally injured and who survived. He said that information would be released by local authorities. Sumwalt said "I've heard rumors of who survived and who did not, but we're not here to deal with rumors."

In a second briefing held Friday, the NTSB said that an analysis of voice communications between the pilot and ATC did not indicate there was anything unusual about the landing attempt, and there was no distress call or emergency declaration prior to the impact, according to television station WRDW. Board representatives said five witnesses have been interviewed, but did not elaborate on what they had said.

The board expects it will be on-scene for several days conducting the preliminary investigation, which will include security camera footage from the airport.

(Image of Robert Sumwalt from NTSB YouTube video)

FMI: www.ntsb.gov, http://youtu.be/az5VUq3r4dU