The National Transportation Safety Board said a fatal plane crash in North Carolina this month was caused by the pilot trying to avoid hitting a turtle on the runway.
The pilot and one passenger on the single-engine Universal Stinson 108 plane were killed, while the other passenger was seriously injured, the NTSB said in its report Wednesday. They did not name the pilot or either of the passengers.
The safety board said the plane took off from Sugar Valley Airport in Mocksville, North Carolina, at about 11:45 a.m. on June 3, and flew the airport’s traffic pattern before trying to land again. Mocksville is about 25 miles southwest of Winston-Salem.
An NTSB spokesperson previously told the Davie County Enterprise Record that the pilot was attempting a go-around maneuver. A radio operator at the airport told the pilot that there was a turtle on the runway. A man cutting the grass at the end of the runway also said he saw the turtle.
To avoid hitting it, the pilot landed about 1,400 feet down the 2,424-foot runway and lifted the plane’s right wheel. The radio operator told the NTSB that the pilot advanced the plane’s throttle after lifting the wheel, and the man cutting grass said he saw the wings of the plane rock back and forth before it took off again.
After that, the NTSB said, the plane passed behind a hangar and the grass-cutting man lost sight of the aircraft. The plane then disappeared over the treeline on the northeastern side of the runway and the man heard the crash and saw smoke. The plane crashed about 255 feet northeast of the runway and caught fire after crashing. NTSB investigators found the crashed plane wedged in between several trees.
