The National Transportation Safety Board says engine failure caused a small plane to crash in a north Phoenix neighborhood.
The Piper Cherokee had taken off from Deer Valley Airport when the pilot reported a loss in engine speed accompanied by rough vibrations, according to the preliminary report from the NTSB.
The pilot increased the throttle, leaned the fuel mixture, configured the airplane to glide, and declared his intention to return to the airport, the NTSB said in the report.
About 5-10 seconds before impact, the engine lost power completely. The plane struck two homes before coming to rest in the second home’s backyard.
The two people aboard the single engine airplane and one person on the ground were injured in the crash landing. The two occupants of the plane were a flight instructor and student pilot. The plane was operating an instructional flight.
Transcript from the radio transmission before the crash
PILOT: We're going to come back in. We're having some engine trouble. We haven't lost our engine, but we have low RPMs.
AIR TRAFFIC CONTROL: 4-4-Tango runway two-five Right. Clear to land. Say nature of emergency.
PILOT: Uh, we lost engine RPMs. Uh, it's not really an emergency, but, uh, we can make it back to the field.
After the crash
After the crash, air traffic control personnel can be heard discussing the incident on the radio.
“We've got the plane here. It's into a house,” air traffic control personnel said. “Uh, right at our current position right now, we do have, uh, the fire department and, uh, police responding.”
The NTSB did not provide a cause for the engine failure.
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