The Beech King Air 200 had reached an altitude of 200 feet (61m) above the runway when it began to fall to a grassy area, the National Transportation Safety Board (NTSB) said in a report filed Friday and obtained by the Long Beach Press-Telegram.
The light plane "had reached an altitude of about 200 feet when it wobbled side to side several times and then rolled to the left, " the NTSB report said, quoting witnesses.
However, the investigators have not established what has specifically caused the crash, and said they were still conducting toxicology tests on the pilot`s charred remains.
The plane`s owner, Tom Dean, 50, was heading to a ski vacation in Utah with four friends when the small aircraft crashed in the northwest portion of the airport, about 26 miles (42 km) south of downtown Los Angeles, at 10:37 a.m. (1737 GMT), the Long Beach Fire Department spokesman Steve Yamamoto said.
NTSB engineers were examining the plane`s skeleton, which was trucked to a government facility in Palmdale, according to the Press-Telegram report.
(Uu.H-AK/P003)
Editor: Priyambodo RH
Copyright © ANTARA 2011
