Local

Report details moments before family of 4 killed in crash of plane flying out of Kissimmee

BLOUNT COUNTY, Ala. — The National Transportation Safety Board has released a preliminary report on a March 25 plane crash in rural Alabama that killed a family of four.

The plane had taken off from Kissimmee en route to Jackson, Tennessee.

The report, which was released Wednesday, detailed the moments before the single-engine Cessna broke apart in the air before crashing into a wooded area in Blount County, Alabama.

An air traffic controller had been in contact with the pilot -- Joseph Crenshaw, 45 -- advising him of inclement weather in his path, the report said.

When asked if Crenshaw needed to change course, the man told the controller that he would take any route that got him past the weather more quickly.

Crenshaw was given clearance to make whatever course adjustments he thought were needed, the report said.

Moments later, the plane started to descend and the air traffic controller advised Crenshaw to maintain an altitude of 12,000 feet.

“The pilot advised ATC, ‘I’m doing the best I can,’” the report said of the last transmission received from the plane.

A witness standing in his driveway told investigators that it was extremely windy in the area at the time of the crash.

“He reported hearing an airplane flying above making a ‘weird’ sound,” the report said. “He said he heard a loud ‘boom’ and started seeing pieces of the airplane falling out of the sky, but did not see it break apart.

“He then saw the fuselage of the airplane, which was spinning through the air, heading toward the ground.”

When the crash was first reported, emergency personnel were hopeful that the passengers had survived, but when they got to the scene it was clear that was not the case, West Blount Fire District Assistant Chief Kyle Ellison said in a news conference the day after the crash.

“Certainly, our thoughts when we received the call that a plane had went down, (we were) immediately in response to hopefully rescue someone,” he said. “But then we also understood that this had become a recovery after we made contact with the (plane’s) fuselage.”

The crash left multiple debris fields over several square miles, Ellison said.

Crenshaw; his wife, Jennifer, 43; son Jacob, 16; and daughter, Jillian, 14, were all killed in the crash.

An investigation into the crash is ongoing.

The NTSB did not say when a final report would be released.