The National Transportation Safety Board has released an initial report on an Election Day plane crash in Mesa that killed five people and left a sixth with serious injuries.
The plane was heading from Falcon Field to Utah for a college basketball game. The plan was for the plane and the people it was carrying to return to Falcon Field after the game, according to federal investigators.
After being cleared for takeoff, the traffic control tower did not hear from the pilot again. Security video recorded the plane accelerating on a runway.
Then it began to slow and went past the runway’s departure point.
The report says the plane ran through the airport’s perimeter fence, hit a vehicle on the road, killing the driver, and caught fire.
Investigators removed flight log data and sent it to a laboratory to be analyzed.
