(Washington) A preliminary report from U.S. authorities into the Nashville, Tennessee, plane crash that killed five Canadians says a witness heard “crackling” and “popping” noises coming from the plane’s engine. The plane was in flight before it crashed along a highway west of downtown Nashville.
Friday’s report from the National Transportation Safety Board describes how the pilot, Victor Dotsenko, of King Township, Ont., told a Nashville International Airport controller that his engine had stopped and he did not know where he was going to land.
The controller allowed Mr. Dotsenko to land the plane carrying his wife and three children on a runway, but the pilot, in his final message to the controller, said he was too far away to make it.
Video footage shows the plane descended over a residential neighborhood and flew over the highway before crashing and catching fire.
The report says several witnesses described hearing what sounded like “engine trouble” coming from the plane as it passed overhead before the March 4 crash.
The single-engine plane was supposed to land at Nashville’s John C Tune Airport on the third leg of its journey from Brampton, Ontario.
With the Associated Press