HOUSTON – A parachute-equipped single engine airplane that crashed Thursday, killing the pilot and two passengers near Hobby Airport, was among a rare few airplanes of that type ever to be involved in a fatal accident.
"The parachute canopy was still stowed in its pouch inside the airframe," Tom Latson, an NTSB investigator, said Friday.
What the NTSB has yet to determine is whether the pilot or passengers made any attempt to activate the parachute before crashing in a flat spin.
Channel 2 Investigates examined the release mechanism in a virtually identical airplane.
To activate the parachute in a Cirrus SR20, someone in the cockpit, most likely the pilot or front seat passenger, would have to pull a T-handle on the interior side of the roof located between the front seats, with 40 to 45 pounds of pressure.
From that point, almost immediately, a miniature rocket fires skyward from a rear exterior hatch behind the passenger compartment on the topside of fuselage. The rocket ensures the parachute extends and expands quickly.
The NTSB said security camera video obtained from the crash site on the 6800 block of Telephone Road showed the rocket launched on impact, but the parachute remained in the airframe.
"The rocket motor ejected from the rear of the motor on impact. All pieces of the aircraft are within a 60-foot radius," Latson said.
Flight data retrieved from the airplane may tell the story of whether there was any attempt to launch the parachute, and if so, if there was any sort of malfunction.
The NTSB's initial report could come as early as next week, a full report on the contributing factors to the crash could take almost a year.
The aircraft, which investigators said was a 2012 Cirrus SR20, left its home base at University of Oklahoma Westheimer Airport in Norman, Oklahoma around 10 p.m. Wednesday before attempting to land just after 1 p.m. Thursday in the 6800 block of Telephone Road near Airport Blvd. in southeast Houston.
The control tower reportedly told the aircraft it was too high to land and to go around again.
"(The plane) was in a flat spin before the moment of impact," Latson said. As opposed to falling in a nose dive, he said.
Surveillance video from the accident has been released, but KPRC is choosing not to show the impact of the crash due to the graphic nature of the scene and out of respect for the families involved.
Latson said the next step is to perform a thorough examination of the aircraft to determine if insufficient plane maintenance had a role in the passenger's death.
KPRC Channel 2 has been told by friends at the family business in Oklahoma that they believe Jerry Gray, his brother Tony Gray and Tony's wife Dana Gray were all on the plane headed from Norman, Oklahoma, to Houston to visit Jerry and Tony's sick father, who is being treated at MD Anderson Cancer Center.
UPDATE: Plane that crashed near @HOU killing 3... @NTSB says video shows plane in flat spin NOT nose down. @KPRC2 pic.twitter.com/K4m9n22iZr
— Joel Eisenbaum (@KPRC2Joel) June 10, 2016
Air traffic control audio reviewed by Channel 2 and provided by liveatc.net reveals there was initial confusion between the tower and the pilot about the landing path and which runway to use.
PILOT: So am I turning a right base now, 52gulf?
CONTROLLER: 52gulf roger, just maneuver back for the straight in, I don't know which way you're going now, so just turn back around to runway 35.
PILOT: Turning to 35, I'm so sorry for the confusion, 4252gulf
CONTROLLER: That's OK, we'll get it.
The wreckage will be taken to a secure storage facility in Dallas and will be examined further.
A witness, Nicole Andrews, told KPRC 2 that she was stopped in traffic on Telephone when she saw the plane on top of what appeared to be a black Honda Accord in the parking lot of an Ace Hardware store.
No one was inside the car, fire officials said.
Andrews said as she passed the scene she could see a body inside the plane.
“Witnesses were more shocked than anything. The alarm [in the car] was going off and there was smoke,” she said.
HFD Captain Ruy Lozano said there was no threat of a fuel spill that could cause a fire or explosion.
All three victims died at the scene. No other injuries were reported, according to Lozano.
“We found out the impact killed all three passengers. It actually struck a vehicle. You can see [it] didn’t strike a building and there was no one in the vehicle," he said.
Lozano said the plane was equipped with a parachute but it did not deploy.
“A lot of these aircrafts have parachutes that will deploy on impact," he said. "Well that parachute's system is still intact so we’re always worried after impact it could go off spontaneously. That’s why we asked everyone to move back”
The cause of the crash is under investigation.