MESA, AZ — A preliminary NTSB report provides some details on the moments before a small plane crashed and killed five people near Falcon Field in November.
According to the report, the occupants were heading to Provo, Utah for a college basketball game and intended to return to the Valley the same night.
After fueling the plane, Air Traffic Control cleared the pilot for the flight. Security video showed the plane accelerating on the runway until 3,000 feet before the plane "struck the airport perimeter fence located about 600 ft beyond the departure end of the runway before it continued across a roadway."
"The data showed that during takeoff, the airplane had accelerated to about 130 knots before it began to decelerate. No engine anomalies were noticed in the data," said the report.
Aerial footage showed the plane on fire and at least one damaged vehicle that was involved.
Preliminary reports do not typically offer a detailed explanation of what exactly caused a plane to crash, just additional details on the incident.
Mesa police released the names of four people on the plane that died in the crash.
They were identified as 43-year-old Spencer Lindahl, 48-year-old Rustin Randall, 44-year-old Drew Kimball, and 12-year-old Graham Kimball.
ABC15 spoke to the family of the driver killed, Ray Longhi, in the days after the crash.
ABC15 viewer Terri Fairfield was hiking at Usery Mountain Regional Park when she saw the smoke minutes after the crash.
This is a developing story. Stay with ABC15 for the latest updates.
