A 2014 airplane crash near Erie Municipal Airport airport that killed five people — including three children — was caused by the pilot’s actions moments before the wreck, federal investigators have found.
The National Transportation Safety Board, in a probable cause report released this week, said 67-year-old Oliver Frascona failed to maintain airspeed and exceeded his aircraft’s critical angle of attack. The result caused the plane, a Piper PA 46 Malibu, to stall and fall from the sky.
The NTSB also concluded that Frascona’s decision to land on a runway with another plane taking off in the opposing direction contributed to the crash.
Tori Rains-Wedan, 41, and her three sons — Mason, 15, and twin brothers Austin and Hunter, 11 — were killed along with Frascona in the crash on Aug. 31, 2014. A dog also died when the plane went down.
The NTSB report released Wednesday says Frascona’s plane came within close proximity of the departing aircraft.
Then, as Frascona continued down the runway at Erie Municipal Airport to land, witnesses say they heard the plane’s power increase and saw the aircraft make a left-hand turn to depart the runway in an attempted go-around.
“The airplane entered a left bank with a nose-high attitude, failed to gain altitude and subsequently stalled and impacted terrain,” the probable cause report says. “It is likely the pilot did not maintain the necessary airspeed during the attempted go-around and exceeded the airplane’s critical angle of attack.”
The report added: “The investigation did not reveal why the pilot chose to conduct the approach with opposing traffic or why he attempted a landing with a tailwind, but this likely increased the pilot’s workload during a critical phase of flight.”
The plane had departed from Centennial Airport.
The Wedan family filed wrongful death lawsuits on behalf of Rains-Wedan and each of her sons against Frascona’s estate and Joe Lechtanski — who was piloting the other plane on the runway — claiming that “very bad piloting” led to the crash.
But following a week-long trial, a six-person jury that heard the case in Weld County District Court found that neither of the pilots was negligent, according to court officials.
The Boulder Daily Camera contributed to this report.
