Small plane that crashed at North County Airport had just had engine replaced, NTSB says
PALM BEACH GARDENS — A single-engine airplane that crashed earlier this month near North Palm Beach County Airport, killing both men aboard, had undergone maintenance just days earlier, including having its engine replaced, according to a preliminary report from the National Transportation Safety Board (NTSB).
A mechanic told NTSB investigators that, on or about July 2, he removed a Piper P-28-161 airplane's previously installed Lycoming O-320-D3G engine and installed a Lycoming O-320-D2B. Both engines are built to generate the same amount of power and use the same type of fuel.
The aircraft crashed on the afternoon of July 10 as a private pilot and flight instructor were attempting a touch-and-go landing at the airport, a site for smaller jets and helicopters off the Bee Line Highway northwest of Palm Beach Gardens. Two men, Stephen Taylor, 59, of Hollywood and Gojko Damjanic, 58, of Fort Lauderdale, died in the crash.
The report is the first step in the NTSB's investigation and reached no conclusions on what caused the fatal crash. Its full report is expected to take several months to complete.
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NBC6 television in Miami identified Taylor as the flight instructor and Damjanic as the private pilot taking lessons to get his instrument rating. The aircraft flew from Pompano Beach to Sarasota Bradenton International Airport, then east to Satellite Beach in Brevard County where it performed maneuvers over the ocean, NTSB investigators said.
Damjanic and Taylor then flew to Melbourne Orlando International Airport to practice a touch-and-go landing before traveling to North County Airport to practice another touch-and-go landing.
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During the subsequent takeoff, the Piper aircraft reached an altitude of 75 feet above ground level and was 25 feet above a nearby pond at its last recorded data point, according to the NTSB's preliminary report, released July 26. A witness told investigators the airplane performed a 180-degree descending right turn after takeoff, then disappeared behind trees. The witness described then hearing the airplane splash into water.
First responders found the plane in a pond about 600 feet to the right of the departure end of the runway, submerged in about 15 feet of water. Its right wing separated from the fuselage on impact, and rescuers found it on the north side of the pond, the NTSB report said.
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Julius Whigham II is a criminal justice and public safety reporter for The Palm Beach Post. You can reach him at jwhigham@pbpost.com and follow him on X, the platform formerly known as Twitter, at @JuliusWhigham. Help support our work: Subscribe today.
This article originally appeared on Palm Beach Post: NTSB: Plane that crashed near Gardens airport had engine replaced
