Texas Plane Crash Leaves Three Dead
The last day of 2016 featured a terrible Texas plane crash, The National Transportation Safety Board (NTSB) and the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) are on the scene investigating a plane crash in which two small private planes collided in mid-air, leaving three people dead.
The crash happened last Saturday evening at about 5:30 p.m. near the Aero Country Airport in unincorporated Collin County. The planes crashed into the ground in a commercial area of McKinney, Texas. One crashed at a storage facility at the intersection of Custer Road and Virginia Parkway, where it hit a stored boat and caught fire. The second plane crashed nearby, on the southbound lanes of Custer Road adjacent to Virginia Parkway.
According to McKinney Police, the first emergency personnel responded to the crash at 5:27 p.m. Witnesses report seeing dozens of emergency vehicles at the scene. The pilot of one of the planes involved in the crash was identified as 48-year-old Robert Navar of Frisco. The two victims in the other plane were Timothy Barber, who was a cadet at the Air Force Academy and his father, 55-year-old Greg Barber, from Farmersville, Texas.
The Aero Country Airport, which is located about 35 miles north of downtown Dallas, is a privately-owned public-use facility, which means that anyone can use the landing strip and pilots can maintain their planes or fuel up at the site. According to the FAA, however, the airport has no air traffic control tower and pilots are required to announce landings and takeoffs via radio. According to FAA records, before this there had been two fatalities reported by the airport, including a 1997 incident in which a pilot lost control of his plane and crashed into a line of trees and died from severe burns and one in 1983, when a passenger exited the plane while it was still running and walked into the propeller, dying from severe head trauma.
How Did the Plane Crash Occur?
Witnesses to this latest accident report seeing one of the planes in flight when another plane “came out of nowhere” and hit the first plane. After the collision, the planes reportedly went down in opposite directions. While the NTSB and the FAA are in the early stages of their investigation, both agencies will conduct a painstaking and thorough investigation into the exact causes of this terrible tragedy. Two families have been devastated by the loss of loved ones and they deserve answers to a lot of questions. For example, if their radios were working, how did they crash? Were both aircraft in good working conditions and were the pilots of the respective planes skilled and experienced enough to be in their positions? Was there a manufacturing defect in either or both aircraft?
Speak to an Aviation Accident Attorney Today
Again, with this tragic plane crash, two families and others’ lives have been changed forever. If you or a loved one has been injured or killed in any sort of aviation accident, contact the experienced Aviation Accident Injury Lawyer at the Hill Law Firm as soon as possible, so that we can discuss the circumstances surrounding your case and find out if someone was negligent. We want to help you protect your rights.