BOYCE, La. (KALB) - The National Transportation Safety Board has released its aviation investigation preliminary report on the fatal plane crash in the Boyce area, near Cleco Lake, aka Lake Rodemacher, that happened on March 22.
Only the pilot was aboard the aircraft at the time of impact. The report did not identify the pilot, but the aircraft was registered to “Donald Sher Trustee” from Los Angeles County in California.
KALB has reached out to the Rapides Parish Coroner’s Office for the identity of the pilot. We were told that this was part of an active investigation, including scientific identification of remains. DNA testing is still pending at this time.
The NTSB report states that a Beechcraft BE20 impacted a swamp near the southwestern shore of the lake. It was determined that the plane impacted in a steep nose-down pitch angle.
There were three distinct holes from the 15-foot-deep impact crater. There was a fan-shaped debris field that extended from the impact crater to about 400 feet. The debris consisted of severely fragmented portions of the plane’s nose, cabin, cabin door, wings, landing gear and empennage. There were also fragments found of the right aileron, left elevator, left elevator trim tab and rudder. The base of two propeller blades and several small sections of propeller hub were found, including shards from composite propellers.
NTSB said no portions of the cockpit, flight controls or instrument panel were recovered. Neither of the engines were found down to 30 feet into the impact crater.
A strong odor believed to be Jet-A aviation fuel was present at the site.
Timeline of Events:
All times are in Central Daylight Time
11:49 a.m. - The aircraft departed from Fort Lauderdale Airport (FXE) in Fort Lauderdale, Florida, on a cross-country flight to Dallas Executive Airport (RBD) in Dallas, Texas. The plane traveled northwest to Tallahassee, Florida, where it turned west.
1:59 p.m. - The pilot contacted the Houston Center controller, saying the aircraft was level at flight level 280 (FL280). At this time, the aircraft was about 4.5 nautical miles east-southeast of Gloster, Mississippi. The pilot continued west toward Alexandria, Louisiana.
2:11 p.m. - The pilot asked the controller to confirm his flight routing after the Alexandria VORTAC, or VHF Omnidirectional Range Tactical Air Navigation.
2:12 p.m. - The controller told the pilot that the flight was routed to RBD via the DODJE 6 arrival procedure.
2:13 p.m. - The pilot replied, “Okay, I’ll put that in here real quick here, Six Delta Sierra.”
2:14 p.m. - The aircraft turned west-northwest after flying over the Alexandria VORTAC. The plane continued on a direct flightpath toward the next reporting point, NOBBL.
2:17 p.m. - The pilot requests to the controller if he could “leave your frequency for about sixty seconds.” The controller approved the request and told him to report when he was back on the Houston Center frequency. The pilot replied “will do,” but there was no further radio transmission from the pilot.
Seconds later, the airplane cockpit’s voice recorder was able to pick up the sounds of clicks and rustling. The autopilot disconnect alert sounded. According to available data, about two seconds after the autopilot disconnected, the aircraft entered a right turn at an increasingly steep bank angle.
The recording picked up an excessive bank angle alert, repeating six times. The plane was descending at about 2,100 feet per minute, from the initial height of 28,000 feet in the air.
The altitude alert tone was heard in the recording.
2:18 p.m. - The landing gear warning horn is heard five times in the audio recording. The overspeed alert was then activated and continued until the end of the recording.
Around this time, the controller attempted to contact the pilot, who did not reply.
Calculations revealed the plane’s vertical speed remained between -32,000 fpm and -45,000 fpm for the rest of the flight. The final recorded altitude was at 1,250 feet above the crash site elevation.
Just 9 seconds before 2:19 p.m., the recording stopped. NTBS said a summary of the content applicable to the crash will be released as part of the investigation.