The National Transportation Safety Board has determined the probable cause of the 2019 Lafayette plane crash as spatial disorientation. Five people were killed one person survived.
On December 28th, 2019 a small plane headed to an LSU game in Atlanta crashed in the parking lot of the post office on Feu Follet Road. Five of the six people on board the plane were killed, including the pilot. It happened about a mile from the Lafayette Regional Airport near the intersection of Feu Follet and Verot school Road, just after 9:00 a.m.
According to the National Transportation Safety Board, a little after 9:00 a.m., the controller issued a low altitude alert, stating that the pilot should check his altitude immediately. The pilot did not respond and no emergency transmission was received.
The surviving passenger recalled the plane being "pitched up like the pilot was trying to get above...the clouds” and that a “harder than normal pitching movement” had occurred, indicating the pilot had become spatially disoriented in the initial climb due to lack of visual references.
The postaccident examination of the plane's structures and systems revealed nothing out of the ordinary which would have affected normal operation. However, the weather conditions at the time of takeoff contributed to the development of the pilot's disorientation.
To read the full report, click here. Search (ntsb.gov) Or view the documents below:
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