NTSB releases report on deadly plane crash in Danville

WSLS News Staff
Published: July 1, 2008

The National Transportation Safety Board releases the results of their investigation into a deadly plane crash that happened in Danville, three days after the Virginia Tech tragedy.

The Grumman American AA-5BA single engine plane crashed near Lexington Avenue, about a quarter of a mile from the Danville Airport, on the morning of April 19, 2007.  Just a few minutes before the crash happened, the pilot sent a distress call to the airport.  That distress call claimed the pilot’s passenger was having a diabetic emergency.

The NTSB’s investigation found that the pilot advised air traffic control that his diabetic passenger was experiencing “tremors,“ and that the pilot was “wrestling with the other guy.“  The NTSB ruled the probable cause of the crash was due to the passenger’s interference with flight controls due to his medical emergency, and the pilot’s inability to maintain aircraft control.

Investigators also found the passenger used an insulin pump to control diabetes.  A postmortem toxicology screening tested positive for quinine, which is used to reduce night leg cramps.  The NTSB says quinine can result in low blood sugar, even for non-diabetics, and that probably played a role.

Tests on the pilot found the drugs butalbital, venlafaxine, and ibuprofen in his system.  Investigators think the pilot may have been “sufficiently distracted or impaired by his existing medical conditions that he did not adequately handle an impending or evolving incapacitating event in his passenger,“ according to the report.