No One Witnessed Deadly Plane Crash Near Auburn, Investigators Say in Report
Jan. 24—No one witnessed a plane crash earlier this month that killed two Nebraska men south of Auburn, leaving investigators with more questions than answers about what led to the crash, according to a preliminary report released Tuesday.
The plane — a Cessna 150 — was approaching Farington Field in Nemaha County after departing from Lincoln on the evening of Jan. 11 when it crashed into a field about a mile south of the airport, according to the National Transportation Safety Board's preliminary report.
The crash wasn't reported to authorities until around 11 that night — more than three hours after the plane crashed — when a caller in Lincoln alerted Nemaha County Sheriff's deputies about a plane that hadn't returned as scheduled, according to the sheriff's office.
Deputies who located the crash site found 24-year-old Colton Hill of Kearney and 41-year-old Dustan Biegler of Valparaiso dead in the wreckage.
Biegler, who was piloting the plane, was certified as a student pilot in April. Hill had been a certified commercial pilot since May and a certified flight instructor for single-engine airplanes since August, according to Federal Aviation Administration records.
The two hadn't filed a flight plan before they departed Lincoln that night, according to the preliminary report. The plane was scheduled to travel from Lincoln to Auburn before heading back to Lincoln.
In Tuesday's report, National Transportation Safety Board investigators said the Cessna 150 reached about 3,500 feet in its flight to Nemaha County and began descending about 6 miles northwest of Farington Field.
The last broadcast signal captured from the plane indicated it was about 1 mile west of the airport, according to the report.
The plane — facing southeast, with its landing gear deployed — crashed into a farm field about 1 mile south of the airport and came to rest 135 feet away from its initial impact point, investigators said.
"About 25 feet beyond the initial impact, ground impact marks were observed from both wing tips," investigators said in the report.
The Cessna 150 was "substantially damaged" in the crash and the nose of the plane was crushed, the investigator said, noting that the damage was consistent with a "nose down" positioning upon impact. The plane didn't catch fire or explode upon impact.
Investigators recovered all of the airplane's components and found no indication that the plane had struck a wire while in flight, according to the report.
Weather also doesn't appear to have been a factor in the crash. Wind gusts in the area were between 13 mph and 18 mph, according to the report, and visibility was 10 miles.
The National Transportation Safety Board retained the Cessna 150, which was manufactured in the 1960s and first declared airworthy in 1968, for further examination.
Reach the writer at 402-473-7223 or [email protected].
On Twitter @andrewwegley
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