An aviation expert has shared two morbid reasons why he believes the horrific plane crash in Arizona that killed five people last month occurred.
Cary Grant, a professor at Embry-Riddle Aeronautical University in Prescott, reviewed the National Transportation Safety Board’s preliminary report on the Nov. 5 crash in which a small private jet crashed into the fence outside the Falcon Field Airport in Mesa.
Grant wants to know if this was due to human error or a plane malfunction, which the NTSB said was not present, but feels either is to blame.
‘Why did you make the decision not to take off the plane? Was there something that prevented the plane from flying or was it simply a bad decision on the part of the pilot? Grant said AZFamily On Wednesday.
“It’s very tragic for everyone involved.”
As Grant explained, the Honda HA-420 aircraft never took off, passing through the fence at a speed of approximately 130 knots.
It then hit a car on the road adjacent to the airfield with fire, killing the driver. He was later identified as Ray Longhi, 67.
The people who died aboard the plane were pilot Spencer Lindahl, 43, Rustin Randall, 48, Drew Kimball, 44, and his 12-year-old son Grahm Kimball.
There were a total of five people aboard the Honda HA-420 jet. Four of them died, while the pilot’s son survived and suffered burns.
The pilot’s son, Kimball Lindahl, 18, was the only survivor. multiple outputs reported after the horrible tragedy.
According to flight data reviewed by the NTSB, the pilot stopped communicating shortly after air traffic control cleared him for takeoff.
“So the fact that he did not contact air traffic control is not necessarily indicative that he had no intention of speaking to air traffic control, he just probably did not have time to speak to them,” Grant said.
Grant added that small planes like the one in this incident do not need to have cockpit voice recorders, which will make reconstructing what happened more difficult for investigators.
The NTSB report did not mention that there was a cockpit voice recorder aboard the plane, but said it was equipped with a flight deck.
Cary Grant, professor at Embry-Riddle Aeronautical University in Prescott
Flight deck data revealed that the plane accelerated to 130 knots on the runway before decelerating and charging past the end of the runway toward the airport perimeter. This data also revealed that “there were no engine anomalies.”
Grant said 130 knots (almost 150 mph) is too fast to abort a takeoff.
‘That is part of the calculations that pilots have to do before taking off: knowing their decision speeds. “130 knots is obviously the speed the report says, which was well beyond the airplane’s ability to be able to stop on the available runway at Falcon Field,” Grant said.
This flight data examined by the NTSB also revealed that there were “no engine anomalies.” The plane’s brake and anti-skid systems were also found to be operating normally at the time of the accident.
‘But from the preliminary report, it is very difficult to determine whether there was a mechanical problem. “All the preliminary report says is that it appears everything was operating normally,” Grant said.
It could take two years for the NTSB to have a clear answer about what caused this devastating accident, which is why Grant added that people should not jump to conclusions.
Father and son, Drew Kimball, 44, and Grahm Kimball, 12, died in the horrific plane crash.
Spencer Lindahl, 43, and Rustin Randall, 48, also lost their lives. In total five people died
In the days after the crash, officials determined that the plane was going to see a college basketball game in Provo, Utah.
Records obtained by Arizona Republic show that the plane was owned by Ice Man Holdings LLC, a company owned by Lindahl and Randall.
The two men, in addition to being business partners, were described as close “brothers,” according to their friend Nate Porter.
Last night we lost two extraordinary men. Spencer Lindhal and Rustin Randall. “They were like brothers and we raised our families together,” Porter said.
Immediately after the tragedy, the wife and mother of Drew and Grahm, the father and son who died on the plane, posted a heartfelt tribute that included a picture of them smiling side by side.
‘Our hearts are terribly heavy as we share the passing of Drew and Grahm in a tragic plane crash yesterday.
“We are completely devastated, but we find comfort in knowing that there was a glorious reunion with Braden on the other side. We stand firm and know, without a doubt, that families are forever,” Tanya Kimball wrote.
He referred to her and Drew’s late son, Braden Kimball, who committed suicide in December 2023.
“Please pray for the other two families involved, the Lindahl and Randall families,” Tanya added in a post on her Instagram Story.
Ray Longhi, 67, was the fifth victim of the accident. He was driving the car that was crashed by the plane Lindahl was piloting.
It was revealed that Longhi, the driver of the car who died when the plane crashed into him, was a father of two children and grandfather of one.
He was headed to Phoenix Sky Harbor Airport to pick up his wife of 35 years from work when the accident occurred. It was only a few kilometers from his house.
The irony, his daughter said, is that her father was an avid traveler who loved aviation. He even took a job at Boeing and moved with his family to a house adjacent to Falcon Field airport in Mesa, according to ABC 15.
“I’ve driven down the street hundreds of times and a lot of them were with my dad,” his daughter, Lorraine, told the station.
“Planes or helicopters would fly overhead as we drove down the road and my father knew everything about what model plane it was.”
He said he is now struggling to understand what happened.
“When I heard it was an accident, I think I just assumed it was a car accident, but when I found out there was a plane involved, I think it was very difficult to understand,” Lorraine said.
“I just couldn’t wrap my head around the fact that my father could have a plane crash next to the same airport he had been living at for decades.
“It was impossible for me to imagine that something like this could happen a kilometer from home,” he added.