The pilot in the deadly Percy Priest Lake plane crash last month did not promptly respond to two separate air traffic control instructions before the plane went down, according to a preliminary report from the National Transportation Safety Board.
Investigators found the plane made several moves — changing course, climbing and descending — before making a steep turn and plummeting into a shallow portion of the lake.
A fisherman witness described the impact as “straight down.” There’s no indication of an in-flight fire.
The private plane crashed about 2 minutes after takeoff from the airport in Smyrna, killing the pilot and six leaders of the Remnant Fellowship Church in Brentwood.
Divers recovered about two-thirds of the 1982 twin-engine Cessna near the Fate Sanders Recreation Area. It was not equipped to record flight data or audio from the cockpit.
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