NTSB: Plane that crashed, killing 2, was 'constantly smooth' approaching Lantana airport
LANTANA — The engine of a small airplane that crashed this month at Palm Beach County Park Airport, killing both people aboard, was "constantly smooth" as it flew over a runway in the moments before the wreck, according to a National Transportation Safety Board preliminary report.
Two witnesses made the observation to federal investigators examining the March 5 crash that killed the pilot, John Holland IV, 43, of Delray Beach and student pilot Michael Marshall, Jr. 34, of Boca Raton. The witnesses, both pilots, told investigators they were on the ramp waiting for the plane to arrive that night.
The single-engine Diamond DA-40 airplane was recently leased and was being flown that day to Lantana from the Henderson City-County Airport in Henderson, Kentucky, with a stop in between at a municipal airport in Williston, southwest of Gainesville.
According to the NTSB report, the aircraft took off from Williston shortly before 7:30 p.m. and proceed in a south-southeasterly direction to about 14 nautical miles north-northwest of Southwest Florida International Airport near Fort Myers before proceeding east toward Lantana.
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Airplane started to turn over just before landing, witnesses told NTSB
The aircraft approached Palm Beach International Airport, and Holland advised that they were at 2,500 feet. The flight was about 7 nautical miles west of the Lantana airport when either Holland or Marshall advised a controller that the airport was in sight. The flight proceed toward a runway for a straight-in visual approach shortly before 9:30 p.m., the report said.
That's when its problems began.
One witness told investigators the aircraft was about 800 feet from the approach of runway 10 when it started to "go around." The aircraft was about 20 to 30 feet above ground level but did not touch down, the NTSB report said.
The witness said the aircraft climbed to no higher than between 200 and 250 feet when it banked to the right, stalled and rolled over at or just past the departure end of the runway, off Congress Avenue near Lantana road.
The second witness, a student pilot, told NTSB investigators the Diamond airplane was at the departure end of runway 10 when it made a sudden 45-degree right bank. He noted that when the aircraft banked right, the nose leveled off, then entered a steep turn of 60 degrees.
The right wing stalled and the airplane started to turn upside down, the NTSB report said. The student pilot told investigators that it never sounded like full power, and from the point of the landing, he never heard a huge change in engine sound.
He added that the engine sounded normal during the aircraft's turn behind the hangars and it then went silent.
Pilot had just married, was soon to become father
Holland was married in February and he and his wife, Lindi, were expecting a baby girl in April.
Lindi Holland described her husband as an experienced pilot who had more than 700 hours flying single-engine planes.
Holland worked for Palm Beach County-based Aamro Aviation and had traveled to Kentucky to pick up a new plane recently purchased by the company, she said in an interview conducted days after the fatal crash.
The NTSB will issue a final report on the crash in several months.
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 Twitter at @JuliusWhigham. Help support our work: Subscribe today.
This article originally appeared on Palm Beach Post: NTSB issues initial report on Lantana plane crash that killed 2
