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Pilot killed in fiery Kentucky jet crash after reporting trouble to daughter
James Alan Michaels, 70, of Dousman, Wisconsin, died when his L-39 Albatros jet crashed in a field near Mayfield, Kentucky, on Sunday, Nov. 8, after he reported problems shortly after takeoff.
A 70-year-old Wisconsin pilot was killed when his military-style L-39 Albatros jet plunged into a field near Mayfield, Kentucky, on Sunday, Nov. 8, after he reported problems in the air and tried to return to the airport. James Alan Michaels, of Dousman, Wisconsin, was the only person aboard the aircraft, which caught fire and rolled after it hit the ground.
Michaels was flying home to Wisconsin with his daughter, Tonie Michaels, 35, after an air show in Mississippi. Each of them piloted a separate L-39 jet, and the two aircraft were traveling together. The pair had stopped at the Mayfield airport to refuel before continuing north, a brief stop that put them back in the air in the early afternoon.
According to the reporting, Michaels reported problems after climbing away from the airport and said he planned to return. He radioed that he could not land and attempted to set the jet down in an open field instead. The aircraft struck a ditch near Spence Chapel Road, close to the intersection of Interstate 69 and Kentucky Route 131, where it caught fire and rolled. Investigators have not said what caused the problems he described.
Tonie Michaels witnessed the crash from her own aircraft and then landed back at the Mayfield airport. The father and daughter had been traveling together as a pair, so she was in the air beside him when his jet went down. The notes do not describe any exchange between them after the crash.
Local authorities logged the crash at about 2:08 p.m. The Federal Aviation Administration recorded the incident at about 2:25 p.m., a gap of roughly 17 minutes between the two sets of records. The National Transportation Safety Board is leading the investigation, and an on-scene investigator was expected to arrive Monday evening to begin work at the site.
The NTSB said its probe will examine the pilot, the aircraft and the operating environment, covering the conditions at the airport and in the area where the jet came down. A final report is expected in 12 to 24 months. The cause of the crash has not been determined, and the agency has not released findings.
The father and daughter had been involved in a serious accident before. In 2010, they both survived a crash-landing in Colorado caused by a severe downdraft in Rocky Mountain National Park. That earlier incident ended with both of them alive, while the Kentucky crash claimed the pilot's life. Investigators in Kentucky have not linked the two events, and the notes do not say whether the earlier crash bears on the current inquiry.
Source: foxnews.com
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