Plane in fatal Michigan crash was mechanically sound
A single-engine airplane that went down in Holland, Mich., last weekend, killing the pilot and a former St. Charles woman, had no mechanical problems, a crash investigator said Thursday.
St. Charles East High School graduate Emma Biagioni, 20, and pilot David Otai, 23, died when the four-seat Cessna Skyhawk crashed in a farm field Sunday morning, not far from Hope College, where they were classmates.
Arnold Scott, senior air safety investigator for the National Transportation Safety Board, said a lineman at Tulip City Airport saw the plane take off shortly before 10 a.m. and disappear into overcast skies. After making four passes over the airport, the plane came back into view at "50 feet off the ground, barely clearing the trees," according to the witness.
Scott said Otai radioed that he was "lost in the fog" and requested an emergency instrument flight return, meaning he apparently could not fly by vision. A distress signal went out shortly after 10 a.m. indicating the plane had crashed, and authorities located the wreckage about an hour later about 10 miles short of the airport.
"We examined the airplane ... and we didn't see anything mechanically wrong with it," Scott said.
Hope College officials have said Otai, who was licensed to fly single- and multi-engine planes commercially, often took classmates along when he rented a plane to log flight hours. He also had flown the very same plane before, according to Tulip City Air Service, which rented the Cessna to him the day of the crash.
Born in Singapore, Biagioni was a 2007 graduate of St. Charles East High School and a junior at Hope College, where she studied Asian culture and political science. Visitation is planned for 3 to 8 p.m. Sunday at Norris Funeral Home, 100 S. Third St., St. Charles, with a memorial service at 3 p.m. Monday at Christ Community Church, 37W100 Bolcum Road, also in St. Charles.
Scott said the investigation is ongoing, with authorities awaiting routine toxicology tests, police reports and further witness statements.
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<li><a href="/story/?id=351823">Pilot in crash that killed St. Charles East grad was no rookie<span class="date">[1/18/10]</span></a></li>
<li><a href="/story/?id=351695">St. Charles East grad killed in Michigan plane crash<span class="date">[1/17/10]</span></a></li>
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