'We are losing power,' new pilot said before fatal crash in Oklahoma City in December
With his plane trailing smoke, new pilot Barrett Ellis began to turn around.
"We are going to return for landing," he told the tower controller at Wiley Post Airport in Bethany.
Thirteen seconds later, he said, "We are losing power." After another 13 seconds, he said he was "declaring an emergency." The controller cleared him to land at any runway.
The 1968 Beechcraft single-engine plane crashed just before 10:20 a.m. Dec. 10 and burst into flames. The initial impact was with a 15-foot-tall pile of concrete rubble at a recycling facility.
The pilot tried to rescue his sole passenger, his wife Megan. She died at the scene. He died after being taken to a hospital. Both were 43.
In a preliminary report, the National Transportation Safety Board recounts the exchange between the pilot and controller. It also uncovered a possible cause for the tragedy — a massive oil leak.
The investigation found oil had puddled on the hanger floor, on an asphalt taxiway, by the turn to a concrete taxiway and on the runup pad. Also found were oil drips, oil spray from the propeller and oil tracks.
"The nose landing gear deposited an easily discernable, dark black, oily, tire track as the airplane moved toward taxiway C1," the NTSB reported.
"The initial source of the engine oil leak could not be conclusively determined due to mechanical damage sustained during multiple connecting rod separations and thermal damage sustained during the postimpact fire."
The crash came less than five minutes after the pilot had been cleared for takeoff.
A security camera on one hanger recorded the plane in a climb from the runway just before 10:17 a.m. "There was possible evidence of intermittent smoke trailing behind the airplane," the report notes.
The same camera "captured the airplane again" as it headed back two minutes later, the report notes. "The video footage showed the airplane descending with light colored smoke trailing the airplane."
Two witnesses also reported seeing smoke trailing from the airplane. A third witness stated "the engine was sputtering as it flew over."
The pilot had purchased the plane on June 30, according to the report. The engine oil and filter had last been replaced Nov. 11 and an oil sump heater had been installed Dec. 1.
A Dec. 5 lab analysis of the replaced oil noted "a lot of metal" and that internal corrosion could be an issue if the airplane had been sitting.
It could be next year, or longer, before a final report is completed.
In an Oct. 8 Facebook post, Barrett Ellis had called his plane a "pretty red girl" and "our family's new ticket to adventure."
"Yesterday I became a pilot, and I'm so proud of myself that I've returned to Facebook to tell you all about it," he wrote.
"This was not an easy thing to do: hours in the cockpit, hours in the books, two examinations, and 13 months of making life work around trips out to the airport. I'm incredibly grateful to my excellent instructor, Scott Dorsey at Route 66 Flight School, and my supportive wife."
Barrett Ellis was an attorney for the University of Oklahoma Foundation. Megan Ellis was executive director for The Sooner Nation Collective, which helps student-athletes get paid for their name, image and likeness while boosting charities.
Other deadly aviation accidents
The crash was the fourth deadly aviation accident in Oklahoma in 2023, according to an NTSB database.
In September, a grounds worker at the Broken Bow Airport died when they were hit by an airplane's right wing. The worker had been mowing grass along a runway. The plane had just landed.
On Jan. 28, 2023, a pilot died in a crash near Hooker about two hours after leaving an airport near Colorado Springs, Colorado. The pilot was returning to Liberal, Kansas.
On Jan. 16, 2023, a pilot and instructor were fatally injured in a crash near Kingfisher in the first flight after a new autopilot system had been installed.
This article originally appeared on Oklahoman: Fatal OKC airplane crash investigation focuses on evidence of oil leak
