Investigator says weather not to blame in plane crash

TAMPA -- An investigator for the National Transportation Safety Board has ruled out weather as a factor in the crash of a private plane Thursday at Vandenberg Airport that killed the pilot and two passengers.

In a news conference at noon, Corky Smith, senior air safety investigator for the NTSB, said the stormy weather Thursday did not play a roll in the crash.

He also corrected one detail of an eyewitness account of what occurred.

A witness who saw the crash while driving south on Interstate 75 told investigators the plane rotated, went airborne, lifted its landing gear and drifted to the left. Then, its right wing hit a 49-foot antenna on the airport grounds. The plane cartwheeled, collided with the ground and burst into flames, Smith said. The plane hit the antenna at about 45 feet in the air.

Smith said evidence indicates it was the plane's propeller, not the wing, that hit the antenna.

The investigation is focusing now on the plane itself, he said, as the NTSB tries to determine what caused the crash that killed a Sun City Center pilot and two passengers from Stuart, Fla.

Today, the NTSB will be clearing the wreckage from the site, and wrapping up its work at the airport, he said.They'll also look at maintenance records and the pilot's log.

Smith, who is based at the NTSB's southern region headquarters in Atlanta, said the investigation could take up to a year, but he hopes to complete it in six months.

Thursday afternoon, a single-engine Beechcraft Bonanza flown by Harlan "Lanny" Northcott, 81, of Sun City Center, crashed and burned at Vandenberg Airport. The crash killed Northcott and his two passengers, Tyler McLellan, 15, and Patricia Snyder, 49, both of Stuart.

He had been flying a mission from Tampa to Stuart, bringing Snyder back from medical treatment as part of an Angel Flight mission. Tyler was accompanying Synder, one of his mom's friends.

Angel Flight is a program in which pilots donate their time, planes and fuel to carry patients to treatment. He had been helping out about two to three times a month since 2004, Angel Flight's director of mission operations Angel Gamble said.

"We always knew we could call upon him at any given time," she said. He had flown Snyder about a week ago on a similar mission, she said.

Family members are gathering today and working out funeral arrangements. One of Northcott's granddaughters said they plan to have a memorial service in Sun City Center and a funeral in New Orleans, where he lived before he retired.

Meanwhile, family members traveled to Stuart to comfort Jill Ellis, the mother of Tyler McLellan. She works at the Clock Family Restaurant in Stuart as a waitress. She became friends with Snyder, who worked as a waitress for four years, manager John Hoffman said.

"Everyone here cared for her," he said. "She was a wonderful person."