The National Transportation Safety Board on Monday released a document called “probable cause” detailing what investigators believe is the most likely cause of a deadly plane crash on the night of February 4, 2015.
Dr. Mike Rice, 60, was flying a single engine plane from Carlsbad to Lubbock when his plane hit a guy wire of the KCBD television tower at 5600 Avenue A. The upper portion of the tower crashed to the ground, and Rice lost his life. No one on the ground was injured.
Conditions included cloud cover aloft, and the NTSB’s newest report said, “Weather conditions were conducive to the accumulation of ice at the destination airport.”
No ice was observed on the plane wreckage on the ground, and the report indicates that light icing would have been only one of several factors. Wind gusts were recorded at 37 miles per hour that night and the report mentions that as a factor as well.
Rice was told by the control tower at Lubbock Preston Smith International Airport to cancel his approach to make way for another plane. He acknowledged the request and began to turn while gaining altitude. Moments later the plane descended rapidly and crashed.
The NTSB said, “Based on the available evidence, it is likely that, while initiating the climbing left turn, the pilot became spatially disoriented, which resulted in his loss of airplane control and his failure to see and avoid the tower guy wire, and that light ice accumulation on the airplane and the gusting wind negatively affected the airplane’s controllability.”
The report on Monday was the 3rd and presumably the final report released by the NTSB. In April, an NTSB report released new factual findings but not a final conclusion as to what caused the crash.
