NTSB report details fatal plane crash near Camarillo Airport
Events leading up to a fatal plane crash outside Camarillo last month were detailed in a preliminary report released by the National Transportation Safety Board on Wednesday.
The plane, a Mooney M20K single-engine craft, was piloted by Jacob G. Abraham, 68, of Phoenix. Abraham was the sole occupant when the plane crashed into a strawberry field in north Oxnard shortly after taking off from Camarillo Airport around 8 a.m. on June 10.
The preliminary report summarizes the events as a statement of facts, according to an NTSB spokesperson. No analysis or conclusion as to the cause of the accident will be issued until the full report is published.
The report says Abraham had flown in from Phoenix's Deer Valley Airport on June 9 to go golfing in the Camarillo area. The crash took place at the start of his return flight the next day, with his plane wing clipping a building on the south side of Highway 101 before crashing into a field on the north side of the freeway. The impact created a fireball seen by motorists on their Friday morning commute.
At 7:30 a.m., Abraham had requested a weather briefing. A marine layer with 700 feet of cloud tops was reported from Los Angeles International Airport, roughly 40 miles from Camarillo. When the briefer said a marine layer was present in Camarillo, Abraham replied that it was "socked in," according to the NTSB report.
The briefer mentioned a local temporary flight restriction due to weather and Abraham asked if he could file a modified flight plan.
After filing the plan, Abraham contacted Camarillo's tower controller at 7:49 a.m. The local weather report at the time was 300 feet of overcast ceilings and mist with visibility of 4 miles.
The controller gave Abraham clearance and instructed him to turn right after takeoff, climb to 3,000 feet and expect 7,000 feet of altitude approximately five minutes after departure. Abraham repeated the instructions, but forgot to include the 3,000 feet altitude instruction and was corrected by the controller.
Abraham was told to taxi to runway 26 but appeared to use the wrong taxiway, the report said. Abraham told the controller it was his first time flying out of the Camarillo Airport. He was given amended taxiing instructions to the runway.
Abraham was cleared for takeoff at 8:01 a.m. and about 90 seconds later was told to contact the departure controller. Abraham responded to the instructions but didn't contact the departure controller.
About a minute later, a controller from Southern California Terminal Radar Approach Control, which oversees air traffic control for the region, contacted the Camarillo tower controller to ask if the plane had taken off, as they hadn't made contact and hadn't seen the plane on their radar console.
On Highway 101, meanwhile, about a half mile north of the runway and parallel to it, multiple witnesses reported seeing a low-flying plane heading south-to-north at high speed, according to the report. The drivers saw a fireball after the craft hit the ground east of Del Norte Boulevard.
Video from one driver's dashboard camera captured the plane flying just above power lines in the area. It did not appear to be trailing smoke or vapors before impact.
The plane first clipped the wall of a building south of the freeway and about a mile from the runway. The impact left the imprint of the plane's right wing approximately 50 feet above the ground. The collision caused the outboard section of the wing to fall on the building's roof, followed by a trail of debris leading to the site where the plane hit the strawberry field north of the freeway, approximately 750 feet from the building.
The plane crashed into the field and caught fire, causing extensive damage to the aircraft. Abraham was pronounced dead at the scene as a result of blunt trauma, according to the Ventura County Medical Examiner's Office.
The accident remains under investigation by NTSB investigator Eliott Simpson. The agency's final report, which will detail the cause if determined, is still pending and will likely be released next year.
Jeremy Childs is a breaking news and general assignment reporter for the Ventura County Star. He can be reached at 805-437-0208, jeremy.childs@vcstar.com, and on Twitter @Jeremy_Childs.
This article originally appeared on Ventura County Star: NTSB report details fatal plane crash near Camarillo Airport
