SNOHOMISH — Federal transportation safety investigators on Saturday released the preliminary determination pilots may have been deliberately testing the airplane stall limits of a stock Cessna Grand Caravan at the time it broke up midair Nov. 18 and crashed hard in a field near U.S. 2, killing all four occupants.
The Tukwila-based engineering firm Raisbeck Engineering was doing a week’s schedule of standard tests on the leased Cessna to collect baseline performance measurements. The company is developing an aftermarket plane performance part to reduce drag and improve efficiency, but its modification was not yet added to this plane.
This day’s tests included a series of sharp turns to intentionally find the limits for when the plane stalls. Stalling is when a plane loses its level of lift under the wings, most often while climbing, and needs more speed.
Moments before it broke up, the plane was doing a steep turn while climbing at an alttitude of about 9,700 feet. Someone familiar with the test program told authorities this test likely was with full throttle and flaps down.
When it fell, it nosedived in a corkscrew before hitting the earth. There was no on-board explosion, National Safety Transportation Board (NTSB) investigators determined.
All of the debris was found on the north side of U.S. 2 where the plane crashed. The debris field spread across a mile.
The right wing was found about two football fields away from the main wreckage. The engine, cockpit and left wing were all in the core wreckage site which ultimately burned after the plane hit.
The four who died were pilots Scott A. Brenneman and David W. Newton, as well as Nate Lachendro, an engineering program manager at Raisebck, and a second engineer who was contracted through Seattle’s Quicksilver Aerospace to do flight test instrumentation, Nathan Precup.
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SNOHOMISH — Stories of the lives of the four men who died in the Snohomish plane crash Friday, Nov. 18 are starting to emerge. The plane’s right wing separated in flight mid-air, a spokesman for the National Transportation Safety Board (NTSB) confirmed.Federal investigators have now taken the wreckage for reconstruction to identify the cause of the crash.
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SNOHOMISH — Four people onboard a small plane died when it crashed hard in an unworked farm field between Snohomish and Monroe around 10:20 a.m. Friday, Nov. 18 and went into flames. The plane’s right wing separated in flight mid-air, a spokesman for the National Transportation Safety Board (NTSB) confirmed Monday afternoon.
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