KANSAS CITY, Mo. — A preliminary report released Tuesday by the National Transportation Safety Board says the altitude of a small plane was “lower than normal” as it approached the Midwest National Air Center last month.
The plane, a Cessna 340, would crash just before noon on Wednesday, Aug. 27, in Clay County.
Two people — Mark and Vickie Spelts, of Chico, California — died in the crash.
The flight had taken off just before 11 a.m. from Washington Regional Airport in Washington, Missouri, bound for the Midwest National Air Center in Mosby, Missouri.
After an otherwise uneventful flight, the aircraft began a descent into Mosby by entering a left base turn into the traffic pattern.
“The airplane’s altitude was lower than normal for a standard traffic pattern and continued to descend,” investigators wrote in the preliminary report.
Investigators spoke with an eyewitness to the crash, who said the plane’s left wing dipped down, then returned to level before dipping again. The airplane rolled left until it crashed into a soybean field less than a mile from the runway.
Following the crash, the plane erupted in flames, destroying a large portion of the fuselage, including cockpit instrumentation and electronic displays.
Investigators will continue their work to pinpoint the cause of the crash.
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