The final report on a plane crash that killed a Wichita Falls couple on Sept. 13, 2022, cites various factors that likely led to the tragedy with an inexperienced pilot at the controls during thunderstorms.
The Federal Aviation Administration had denied a pilot’s license to Chad Wilson just days before the crash that killed him and wife Brandi, stating he was not eligible for medical certification or for further reconsideration, according to the National Transportation Safety Board’s report.
The report said the probable cause for the accident was the pilot’s “continued visual flight into instrument meteorological conditions, which resulted in spatial disorientation, a loss of control, exceedance of the airplane’s design limitations, and in-flight breakup.”
Chad Wilson, 42, was flying a Piper PA46-310P from Albuquerque, New Mexico, to Henderson, Nevada. Brandi, also 42, was a passenger.
The final report from the NTSB indicates he was flying into an area of thunderstorms when radar lost track of the plane. Wreckage was later found scattered over a 2-mile area near Seligman, Arizona.
More: Plane crash victims’ bodies retrieved from site
The NTSB said a review of the pilot’s logbook revealed Chad Wilson had “about 47 total hours of flight experience, with about 4 hours of instruction in simulated instrument conditions.”
Post-mortem examination revealed he had anger and irritability medications in his system.
But the report concluded the drugs did not affect his handling of the plane since “an unimpaired pilot with the pilot’s relative inexperience would have been likely to lose aircraft control during an encounter with instrument meteorological conditions” — that is a thunderstorm.
The Wilsons were operators of a construction company whose contracts included several with the city of Wichita Falls, as well at least one with Wichita Falls ISD.
More: A windy Wednesday kept fire departments hopping with wildfires in Wichita County
More: Jury selection remains underway in Anthony Patterson trial
This article originally appeared on Wichita Falls Times Record News: NTSB report details cause of crash that killed Chad and Brandi Wilson
Leave a Comment