CROSSVILLE, Tenn. — A preliminary report on a fatal plane crash near Crossville revealed that the pilot was still learning to fly, and had bought the aircraft just a month prior.
The National Transportation Safety Board's preliminary report said the plane, a Cessna 150F, went down at around 6:37 p.m. local time on Oct. 31. It said the plane was destroyed and the student pilot had died.
The report said the pilot had a student pilot certificate and had submitted an insurance application on the day of the crash. That application said he had around 65 total hours of flight experience, including around 30 hours in the plane's specific make and model.
The report said the plane left Cross Memorial Airport's Whitson Field at around 6:17 p.m. after the sun had set and civil twilight had ended. It flew northeast, then north and then to the northwest before turning west around a minute before the crash, according to the report.
Data then ended at around 6:37 p.m. local time, at an altitude of around 200 feet and around 0.3 miles east of the crash site. The report said the pilot was not in contact with air traffic control before the crash and there were no known distress calls.
The report also said the crash site was located along the edge of an eastward precipitation band, and there was no evidence that the student pilot got a weather briefing from someone who had logged contact with pilots.
The preliminary report said the student pilot was headed to West Chicago before the crash.
