NTSB: Aurora pilot stopped for malfunction before Florida crash
An Aurora pilot made an unplanned stop to fix a malfunctioning transponder before his experimental airplane crashed into a Florida grocery store last week, according to a preliminary report.
The National Transportation Safety Board report released Monday indicates Kim Presbrey, a 60-year-old Aurora attorney, was headed to Sanford, Fla., to begin training for a seaplane rating before the April 2 crash.
Presbrey landed about 25 miles north of Sanford at the DeLand Municipal Airport because of the malfunctioning transponder on the four-seat amphibious aircraft and had planned to fly to Daytona Beach International Airport to have it replaced, according to the report.
A pilot taxiing on the runway at DeLand Municipal Airport witnessed Presbrey's amateur-built Seawind 3000 maintain a high pitch angle during takeoff but observed the plane “stall” and enter a “descending left spin,” according to the report.
The plane crashed through the roof of a Publix supermarket about 7:20 p.m., seriously injuring Presbrey and passenger Thomas Rhoades, a commercial pilot from Bull Valley.
Presbrey had told an employee at the maintenance facility that he was new to the airplane and had purchased it about six weeks earlier. The plane had not been flown for about three years, according to the report.
A customer inside the store was also seriously injured, and two others suffered minor burns when the plane ignited inside the store.
A second witness who was parked near the supermarket said she heard two “sputtering” engine sounds before seeing the plane descend straight down nose first into the roof.
An internal examination of the engine did not reveal catastrophic failures, according to the report, but inspectors plan on conducting a further examination.
Presbrey is a certified private pilot, according to the National Transportation Safety Board.