Smoak Plane Crash Investigation Still Not Complete

The National Transportation Safety Board still hasn't concluded the investigation of the June 20 plane crash that killed Mason Smoak and a University of Kentucky professor.

The final report may not be out for months.

"It's kinda hard to say," said investigator Mike Huhn, who works in the National Transportation Safety Board's Ashburn, Va. office. "Our goal is a year or less. We get something on the order of 40 (light aircraft crashes) a year, and then there are some bigger ones, so it's a bit of a juggling game.

"I've pretty much gathered the factual info," Huhn said.

Now, it has to assemble it all. He won't do that with the 1989 Piper Super Cub in front of him. NTSB investigators do that in the movies, but far less often in real life, said Huhn, from the Mid-Atlantic Regional Office. He's not even sure where the insurance company stored the wrecked aircraft.

Smoak, whose family owns orange groves, was piloting the Super Cub when the plane dove into the ground. His passenger David Maehr, a bear research scientist, was visiting Archbold Biological Center. Archbold officials said Smoak and Maehr were surveying Highlands County black bears.

According to Huhn's report, several witnesses saw the airplane in the air, but Richard Debruler was the only person to witness the return of the airplane to 09FA, the FAA designation for Lake Placid Airport.

Debruler, the husband of airport manager Sue Debruler, reported he saw the airplane fly south along the runway with 75 to 100 feet altitude.

"He then heard the engine RPM increase, and saw the airplane conduct an abrupt pull up, followed by a turn to the left and a descent," Hahn's report said. "At that point, the airplane disappeared from his view behind a tree line, but he did not see it re-emerge into view, even though he expected it to do so.

"Shortly thereafter," Huhn wrote, "he went to the south end of runway 18, and saw that the airplane had impacted airport terrain."

"The plane came out of the sky and went straight into the earth," witnesses told Capt. Paul Blackman of Highlands County Sheriff's Office. "It apparently stalled, did a 360 and went straight down."

The airplane came to rest in a grassy area near the runway. The fuselage, twisted and bent, was nearly vertical, nose-down, tail-up. The leading edges of both wings were crushed by the ground, Huhn's report said.

None of that evidence, however, tells Huhn whether the crash was the result of pilot error or aircraft failure. They are all stand alone facts, he said.

Huhn said he is bound by law not to share his conclusions until the final report is released.

Huhn noted that the airplane "contained a significant number of postdelivery modifications... (including) vortex generators and other aerodynamic alterations."

However, he wasn't concerned about them. "It was a very capable airplane," he said. He only noted them because they indicate the Smoak family "has the extra money to improve the airplane."