The National Transportation Safety Board has filed its preliminary report in the July 8 White County plane crash that killed 79-year-old pilot Lee Olson of Gainesville.
“An experimental, amateur-built Kolb Firestar II airplane … was substantially damaged when it was involved in an accident near Cleveland,” the report states. “The pilot/owner held a sport pilot certificate and was based at the Mountain Airpark, Cleveland.”
Surveillance video at the private Airpark corroborated what witnesses told emergency personnel at the crash scene: as the airplane began its initial climb, the pitch angle increased, and the airplane entered a steep left bank turn.
“The airplane turned left about 180 degrees and descended behind trees,” the NTSB report reads. “The airplane collided with a hangar then terrain before it came to rest in the driveway of a personal residence. There was no post-impact fire.”
The wreckage of the plane was taken for further investigation.
