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Preliminary report details Arizona plane crash that killed New Mexico air medics
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A preliminary report released Thursday said a man watched as the medical plane dipped to the left, then leveled off, before going sideways and crashing to the ground — bursting into flames.
The CSI Aviation plane was almost 1,000 feet west of the runway at the Chinle Municipal Airport in Arizona, according to the National Transportation Safety Board report. A cockpit recorder was recovered from the Beechcraft King Air 300.
Paramedic Nick Mancuso and nurse Kameilia Chavez, both of Albuquerque, and pilot Jeffrey Tuning and copilot Amanda Benson, Tuning’s stepdaughter, both of Florida, were killed upon impact in the Aug. 5 crash. The crew was picking up a patient in Chinle for transport to Phoenix.
The cause of the crash is still unknown, and the Federal Aviation Administration and NTSB are investigating.
The report stated that air traffic control radar data showed the plane departed from Albuquerque, where CSI Aviation is based, around 11:55 a.m. The plane steadily climbed into the skies on the way to Chinle, 300 miles northeast of Phoenix.
Around 12:30 p.m., the plane began its descent to approach the runway, according to the report. A witness who was a quarter mile away told investigators the plane was over the runway about 180 feet off the ground.
The report states the witness said he watched as the plane’s left wing “banked erratically multiple times and then leveled off.” Then, the witness said, the airplane nose turned upward before the left wing “dropped into a knife-edge attitude.”
“The airplane descended to the ground and immediately erupted in flames,” according to the report.
The airplane was recovered for further examination, and a voice recorder from the cockpit was shipped to the NTSB Vehicle Recorders Laboratory to be downloaded.
