FRANKLIN, Tenn. (WTVF) — The National Transportation Safety Board officials said it will keep tracking down debris from a plane that went down in Williamson County on Wednesday when three people died.
The debris field is a half-mile radius, and that will take some time to collect all the wreckage pieces, said Aaron McCarter, spokesperson for NTSB. The plane was flying from Louisiana to Kentucky.
Lucius J. Doucet, III's medical practice identified him as a victim, while Louisiana State University announced the death of his children Giselle and Jean-Luc Doucet. Both siblings were set to graduate from LSU on Friday. Giselle was in vet school and Jean-Luc was majoring in engineering.
"We look at the human, the machine and the environment," McCarter said. "We look at qualifications and how much experience was flying in the plane. We have some reports of minor convective activity. We do know that if the weather didn't cause it, but the weather was here. There was plenty of fuel on board. We will combine those things. This is a small part of a holistic process."
The plane descended to 10,000 feet to 7,500 feet. During its descent, people in the area reported to authorities they saw the wings going backward and the plane was out of control. The plane was manufactured in 1966 and the Beech Vector 35 was discontinued in the '80s. The debris pattern is indicative of an inflight breakup.
The NTSB will take the debris to Springfield to try to piece together what happened. A preliminary report will be released 10 days after the NTSB leaves.
There was not a black box on board, but investigators collected two memory cards from the scene. Those cards will be analyzed to see if any data could be saved.
So far, 75% percent of the plane's structure has been found. Investigators will continue searching.
Fostering Hope provides Christmas for kids in foster care. I'm delighted to see Fostering Hope expand this year to expand their reach to now include kids in Foster care in metro AND foster kids in East TN hard hit by Helene.
-Bree Smith
