NTSB, FAA investigating fatal Cooper County plane crash

The National Transportation Safety Board along with the Federal Aviation Administration are investigating what caused a Bellanca plane to crash feet from the Jesse-Viertel Memorial Airport outside Boonville.

Jason Aguilera, a senior air safety investigator with the NTSB, said the early stages of the investigation involve surveying the perishable evidence.

“Anything that could be destroyed by rain or wind or something like that,” Aguilera said, describing perishable evidence. “It’s mainly being able to take a look at the scene as quickly as possible so that’s why we respond to the accident scene.”

Aguilera and other investigators with both agencies were at the airport hanger where the plane was taken to nearly all day Tuesday, taking photos of the damage.

“It’s just a matter of going through it from the wings to the front of the nose to the tail of the airplane and just get a good look at the condition of the airplane,” Aguilera said. “Try to ascertain damage due to the crash and what may have been impacting the flight prior to the accident itself.”

Along with the physical evidence, Aguilera said they investigation involves learning more about the aircraft’s history. This particular plane is from the 1970s.

“It’s got a couple decades on it,” Aguilera said. “So we’ll take a look through the records and take a look at what work has been done, what kind of maintenance has been done over the years to see whether or not that contributed to the airworthiness of the airplane itself.”

The NTSB will also look into the possibility of previous crashes or other accidents this plane may have been involved in.

The pilot, Charles McCutcheon will also be investigated.

“We’ll try to get a good understanding of the pilot’s background. Figure out what kind of training he’s done, how well he knows the area,” Aguilera said.

Online records suggest McCutcheon may have recently purchased the aircraft. An FAA registry shows the name of the registered owner as “pending” but the address lists a Fayette address, where McCutcheon lived.

“That’s normal when an airplane is being sold and they give notification to the FAA that it’s no longer in custody of the previous owner and the paperwork isn’t caught up with the FAA yet,” Aguilera said. “So that’s something that we’ll ascertain during the investigation.”

Aguilera said these smaller planes are not equipped with a “black box” type of device like on larger commercial planes. However, he said, there’s the possibility this plane could have another type of electronic tracking system.

“It wouldn’t have a traditional voice recorder but it may have an engine analyzer that we can take a look at and get some data from,” Aguilera said.

An initial report should be released by the NTSB on this crash in about five business days. The more in-depth report will take anywhere between six and nine months to be completed and released. Shortly after that report, the NTSB will release a probable cause report on the crash.