NTSB releases report after fatal Lake Erie plane crash
21 News is learning more about a plane crash that claimed the lives of six people after it crashed into Lake Erie after a Cleveland Cavaliers game.
21 News is learning more about a plane crash that claimed the lives of six people after it crashed into Lake Erie after a Cleveland Cavaliers game.
You may recall on December 29, 2016, the Cessna 525 disappeared from radar about a minute after takeoff and about two miles offshore.
Boardman native and Superior Beverage CEO John Fleming, his wife, Suzanne; their two sons, 15-year-old John Robert Fleming, and 14-year-old Andrew Fleming, a neighbor Brian Casey; and Casey's teenage daughter, Megan Casey, were on that plane.
The National Transportation Safety Board has released an official report on what they concluded about that fatal crash.
The report stated a postaccident examination of the recovered wreckage concluded the plane did not suffer a malfunction or failure at the time of the crash.
John Fleming was piloting the plane. He completed his flight training 22 days before the accident, according to the report.
After the plane took off from the Burke Lakefront Airport, the communication tower was unable to contact Fleming until officials decided it was time for search and rescue efforts to be conducted.
The report said during the time of the accident, there were on and off snow showers and the dew point temperature was below freezing.
The depth of the lake at the location of the crash was about 40 feet.
About 300 pieces of airplane debris, including the cockpit voice recorder, was located beginning January 5, 2017.
The recovery operations were conducted over the following two weeks as lake conditions permitted.
Investigators said the remains of at least three of the victims were found during search and rescue efforts.
The report also stated several of the Cessna 525 plane systems were different from the plane previously flown by Fleming, including the autopilot controls and the attitude indicator.
You can view the entire accident report here.