WKRG.com » News Stream » Local »

NTSB Releases Crash Report

By Associated Press

National Transportation Safety Board members say plane broke apart in storm after taking off from Gulf Shores NTSB Releases Crash Report

Published: Sun, September 30, 2007 - 12:49 pm Last Updated: Sun, September 30, 2007 - 1:06 pm

LITTLE ROCK (AP) - A preliminary report by the National
Transportation Safety Board says a single-engine airplane piloted
by an Arkansan broke apart in flight during a thunderstorm before
crashing in west Alabama on September 13th.
The report says the 26-year-old pilot, Nathan Stallings of
Jonesboro, was the only occupant of the plane after he had flown
its owner and his wife to Gulf Shores, Alabama.
The NTSB said the plane, a Piper Saratoga, had taken off from
Jack Edwards Airport at Gulf Shores less than an hour before it
crashed, with Stallings planning to fly a return route to
Jonesboro. The plane went down in a heavily wooded area south of
Livingston, Alabama -- southwest of Birmingham, and east of
Meridian, Mississippi.
According to the report, Stallings chose to return to Jonesboro
despite an invitation to spend the night at the summer home of the
airplane's owners, to wait for better weather conditions. The
report said an air-traffic controller who spoke with Stallings
about 4:11 p.m. told the pilot he was flying into some heavy
weather, specifically a line of thunderstorms.