Ryan Enders of the National Transportation Safety Board (left) and David Hallac, superintendent of the National Parks of Eastern North Carolina, give a 4 p.m. press conference at First Flight Airport in Kill Devil Hills on Sunday, Sept. 29, 2024, about the plane crash that took the lives of five people the day prior. (Photo by Corinne Saunders)
By Corinne Saunders
KILL DEVIL HILLS — Four adults and one minor died in Saturday afternoon’s fiery airplane crash near the Wright Brothers National Memorial in Kill Devil Hills, but the names and where they were from were not made public during a 4 p.m. press conference on Sunday.
The fatal accident concluded a multi-leg flight, with the most recent leg coming from Dare County Regional Airport in Manteo, according to Ryan Enders, an Eastern Region aviation accident investigator for the National Transportation Safety Board (NTSB).
When asked where the flight originated, Enders said, “We’re piercing all that together.”
What is known is that “a Cirrus SR22 impacted wooded terrain” adjacent to the First Flight Airport runway on its second approach around 5:18 p.m. Saturday, and that no mayday calls were made, Enders said.
He was not sure if the plane touched the runway or not on its first approach.
Reporters attending the press conference viewed the airplane’s final resting place in the woods—a pile of charred ashes and metal pieces—and saw that some surrounding trees sustained fire damage as well. The group also viewed debris that included what appeared to be a torn metal piece of a wing and a long white cable or cord dangling near the top of the pine tree canopy on the left side of the runway.
Severed metal and a white cable or cord are seen dangling from the pine trees adjacent to the runway of the First Flight Airport in Kill Devil Hills on Sunday, Sept. 29, 2024. (Photo by Corinne Saunders)
The NTSB team will be looking at information about the pilot, the aircraft, the engine manufacturer, recorded weather data and more during their investigation, Enders said.
“We are asking for assistance from the public: If you saw anything, heard anything, you have a Ring doorbell camera that might have captured the airplane—even just the noises of the airplane—we ask that you send that to witness@ntsb.gov,” Enders said.
The NTSB team on the ground arrived Sunday at noon and will be onsite for a few days, while another team in Washington, D.C., will pull other information online to support the investigation, he noted.
“We will be here for the next several days collecting any perishable evidence, such as photographs, video evidence and the environment, including the weather and any air traffic control communications the pilot may have had,” Enders said.
Exactly what happened may not be fully determined for a while, but a preliminary report should be released in the next couple weeks, according to Enders.
“A preliminary report will be published in approximately 10 days, and a factual report will be published in approximately 9 to 12 months,” Enders continued. “Shortly after that, a probable cause will be released.”
The Wright Brothers National Memorial and First Flight Airport were both closed to the public Sunday and plan to reopen Tuesday morning, according to David Hallac, superintendent of the National Parks of Eastern North Carolina.
The closure will allow the NTSB and the Federal Aviation Administration time to conduct their investigation and to remove the wreckage, Hallac said.
Hallac thanked the “dozens” of emergency responders who assisted the National Park Service in the wake of the crash, including the fire departments and police departments from Kill Devil Hills and Kitty Hawk, the North Carolina Highway Patrol, North Carolina Forest Service, Dare County Emergency Medical Services, Dare County Emergency Management and the Dare County Sheriff’s Office.
“They did some incredible work to prevent the fire that started with the plane crash from spreading,” Hallac noted.
The airplane that caught fire after crashing into the woods Saturday adjacent to the runway of the First Flight Airport in Kill Devil Hills appears as a pile of charred ashes and metal pieces on Sunday, Sept. 29, 2024. Some nearby trees appeared to have sustained fire damage, as well. (Photo by Corinne Saunders)
The last time a plane crash at First Flight Airport resulted in a fatality was on April 14, 1984, according to Mike Barber, National Park Service spokesperson.
The park’s current status of operations can be found on its Facebook page.
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