Countywide : Preliminary Report Filed on Plane Crash

Investigators on Tuesday filed a preliminary report on the fatal crash at the El Toro Air Show with the National Transportation Safety Board in Washington, summarizing the facts of the fiery accident but offering nothing new about why or how it happened.

The three-page report describes the weather during the afternoon disaster on May 2 and says that the F-86 Sabre jet was destroyed and the pilot, James A. Gregory of Fernandina Beach, Fla., was killed during a “loop maneuver.” No spectators were injured and there was no property damage besides the plane, the report says.

“At the bottom portion of a loop maneuver, the airplane developed a high rate of sink, and descended in a near nose and wing level attitude onto runway 16,” reported Federal Aviation Administration inspector John Goldfluss, who was among 500,000 spectators at the air show on the day of the crash. “An intense explosion occurred. Wreckage was scattered along the runway for about 1/4 mile.”

NTSB regional director Gary Mucho said that the altimeter, a device in the cockpit that gives the plane’s altitude, would be removed from the plane Tuesday and sent to Washington for analysis. A collage of about a dozen videos of the accident is also en route to Washington, said Mucho, who is coordinating the investigation.

FAA officials in Washington are reviewing the plane’s mechanical history, and Mucho is still gathering background information on Gregory.

The investigation will not be complete for several months, Mucho said.