The plane that crashed near the Gainesville airport Nov. 17, killing the pilot and seriously injuring a passenger, rolled onto its back during an attempted landing, according to a preliminary report from the National Transportation Safety Board.
The document also confirmed reports the night of the crash that the plane struck some trees and a piece of runway equipment as it approached Lee Gilmer Memorial Airport.
The crash occurred about 6:30 as Robert Carlisle Alberhasky, 59, Cumming, the pilot, and Mark Lewis, 69, Flowery Branch, returned to Gainesville from Charleston, South Carolina. They had left Gainesville earlier in the day.
"About 0.1 miles from the runway...the airplane struck tree tops that were about the same elevation as the runway (the trees were about 50 ft tall and located in a valley), at the edge of a 4-lane divided highway (Queen City Parkway)," according to the report. "The airplane descended and impacted terrain and the left lower edge of a 100 ft wide by 20 ft tall wooden platform, located in a ravine below and about 500 feet away from the runway end. The platform held the localizer antenna" for one of the runways.
A witness in a plane waiting to take off saw the plane approach the runway. "He indicated that he saw the landing lights, which 'became dim and they appeared to roll 180 degrees' before the accident."
Lewis recalled for investigators that "the pilot was flying the airplane on the approach when the airplane suddenly became inverted. He did not recall any further details."
According to his logbook and airplane usage records, Alberhasky had accumulated 289 hours of total flight experience, of which 96 hours were in the accident airplane.
Lewis is also a pilot, holding an airline transport pilot certificate and a flight instructor certificate. Records show he has at least 7,500 hours of total flight experience and had accumulated 52 hours in the accident airplane.
It is likely to be several more months, at least, before the NTSB issues its final report.
Click here to read the full preliminary report.
