Plane that crashed at Johnson County airport had just undergone routine maintenance
The plane that crashed north of a Johnson County runway was at the airport in Olathe for an annual routine maintenance and inspection, a National Transportation Safety Board investigator said Monday.
“All planes are required to undergo an inspection at least annual to determine their condition and to determine if they’re safe for flight,” said John Brannen, senior air safety investigator the NTSB’s offices in Chicago.
The inspection was completed and the pilot had filed a flight plan indicating that he was headed to Albuquerque, New Mexico. The NTSB has the maintenance records but has not had a chance to examine them to see what work had been performed and if any discrepancies were found.
The plane crashed around 10:20 a.m. Sunday killing 51-year-old Robert Ming, a lawyer from Laguna Niguel, California. He was the only one aboard the 2012 airplane.
It went down north of the runway in a field near 151st Street shortly after takeoff. The plane caught fire and sparked a small grass fire.
The investigation is in the early stages, said Brannen, who arrived at the crash site Monday morning. Investigators were wrapping up documenting the crash scene.
A salvage and recovery crew was in place to remove the wreckage to an off-site facility where it would undergo further more comprehensive examination. The engine will also be removed and shipped to another facility where it can be examined.
“We don’t have indications one way or another whether the engine was or was not producing power,” Brannen said. “We want to do an internal investigation of the engine to help us determine that.”
Because of the extensive destruction to the plane, the NTSB is not sure if they will be able to recover any data from the plane’s avionics.
Ming had a private pilot’s certificate and was rated with a single-engine land rating and an instrument rating, Brannen said. A more thorough look into his background would be forthcoming. The NTSB will also get an autopsy and toxicology reports on the pilot.
The investigation into the crash could take up to a year to compete.
