Today's NTSB briefing:
Excerpts from a
Dallas Morning News summary of the NTSB briefing:
A cockpit recording from the plane that crashed Sunday at Addison Airport, killing all 10 people aboard, captures the moments when the crew recognized a problem with the left engine, officials said Tuesday.
The audio reveals a mood "consistent with confusion" just after the Beechcraft Super King Air 350 took off and about 12 seconds before the recording ends, said Bruce Landsberg, vice chairman of the National Transportation Safety Board.
NTSB officials said a preliminary examination of the cockpit voice recording yielded two hours of high-quality audio, giving investigators a glimpse into the terrifying moments before the aircraft hit the hangar and burst into flames.
The two crew members received three alerts warning they were in danger of hitting the ground three seconds before the recording broke off abruptly, presumably when the plane crashed into a hangar.
NTSB officials said a preliminary examination of the cockpit voice recording yielded two hours of high-quality audio, giving investigators a glimpse into the terrifying moments before the aircraft hit the hangar and burst into flames.
About eight seconds before the audio cut off, crew members said there was a problem with the left engine. Three seconds before the recording ended, a series of automated alerts warned the crew about the plane’s bank angle.
NTSB investigator-in-charge Jennifer Rodi said the fire destroyed most of the plane's fuselage, complicating the investigation and making surveillance video of the crash even more important.
Four cameras captured the takeoff and crash, officials said. Two of them sat at the end of the runway, giving slightly different angles on the aircraft’s liftoff and impact. They show that the plane began to veer left before it hit the hangar.
A camera near the start of the runway showed the plane lifted off and began to veer. A dashboard camera in a parked firetruck captured the crash itself.
Officials said microchips from cockpit control monitors were recovered and could allow investigators to understand how the crew was operating the craft before the crash.
Experts are pulling apart the plane’s engines and propellers to learn more about what caused the crash. They'll also review the flight records and experience of the crew and interview air traffic controllers who were on duty Sunday.
Officials said Tuesday’s briefing would be the last official update locally as NTSB employees prepared to return to Washington, D.C. Rodi and her team said they probably will be in Addison until Thursday.
The agency expects to have a preliminary cause for the crash in less than two weeks. A full report on the crash could take 18 months.
The NTSB did not release audio of the cockpit recording and said more information will be available later as the cockpit voice recorder is analyzed. The agency will release a written report after the investigation is complete, including a transcript of the cockpit recording. The plane did not carry a flight data recorder.
https://www.dallasnews.com/news/addi...on-plane-crash