NTSB report: Pilot fatigue may have led to crash
A 20-year-old St. Charles woman who died in a plane crash on Jan. 17 had texted the pilot the evening before expressing her concern that he get enough rest to be in good shape to fly the next day, according to a new report by the National Transportation Board.
The report said that a cell phone found at the scene of the crash near Holland, Mich., showed that the pilot, 23-year-old David O. Otai of Nairobi, Kenya, had sent a message to his passenger about some friends going out that night, the report said.
The passenger, Emma Biagioni, responded with concern “that the pilot be in good flying shape for the next day.” Otai replied he needed to get four hours of sleep before flying “otherwise he'd be grumpy,” according to the safety board report.
The phone records indicate that Otai sent a text message at 3:12 a.m. the day of the crash, and placed his last outgoing call at 7:59 a.m. when he phoned Biagioni.
Biagioni was a junior studying political science at Hope College, which is near to the crash scene, while Otai was a foreign exchange student at the same school, in his sophomore year, the report said.
The report also states a worker at Tulip City Airport in Michigan, where the plane took off, was “very concerned” that the pilot took off without filing a flight plan. Federal Aviation Administration inspectors also determined the pilot was not current with flight instrument certifications at the time of the accident.
According to the report, the plane made five passes over the airport and “barely cleared the trees” on the fifth pass. The pilot then called the area's air traffic control saying he was “caught in some fog,” and wanted coordinates for the airport. The plane was found about 4 miles south of Tulip City Airport in a corn and soybean field, according to the report.
Biagioni's family declined to comment on the report Saturday.