Local
NTSB preliminary report offers no clear cause in Election Day crash that killed Shelby County couple
A federal preliminary report finds no obvious mechanical failure in the Nov. 3 crash that killed John and Michelle Peterson, but extensive fire damage and a garbled distress call leave the cause undetermined as the investigation continues.
SHELBY COUNTY, Ky. â Federal investigators have found no obvious mechanical failure in the Election Day plane crash that killed a Shelby County couple, but the preliminary findings released this week leave the cause of the accident unresolved.
John Peterson, 52, and his wife, Michelle Peterson, 51, died Nov. 3 when their single-engine Cirrus SR22 went down shortly after takeoff near Brumley, Missouri. The couple were the only two people aboard. Michelle Peterson won her race for the Shelby County Board of Education just hours after the crash.
According to the National Transportation Safety Board's preliminary report, the couple departed Clark Regional Airport in Jeffersonville, Indiana, around 10 a.m. Central time that day, bound for Wichita Dwight D. Eisenhower National Airport in Kansas. They stopped at a Missouri airport, identified as AIZ, just before 1 p.m. and were cleared to depart about an hour later.
Roughly one minute after receiving departure clearance, the pilot radioed the controller to say the flight was returning to AIZ and declared an emergency. The controller asked what kind of emergency it was, but investigators said only a brief, distressed transmission came back over the frequency.
The aircraft came down in a wooded area of Lake of the Ozarks State Park and burst into flames, destroying most of the plane. The NTSB said the extensive fire damage limited its examination of the flight controls and fuel systems.
Investigators reviewed the airport's fuel truck records and found that daily and weekly inspections had been completed, including checks of the truck's external condition, tank sump, filter sump and leaks. The last inspection of the 100LL fuel truck was documented on the day of the accident, and post-crash fuel samples came back clear.
Weather conditions at the time were visual, meaning clear enough for pilots to navigate by sight, according to the report.
No official cause has been determined, and the investigation remains ongoing. Preliminary reports typically establish the basic facts of an accident while leaving the question of causation to a final report, which can take a year or more to complete.
For the Shelby County community, the crash compounded a bittersweet election night: Michelle Peterson's victory was confirmed even as word of the couple's deaths spread. The school board seat she won remains a focus of local attention as the district moves to fill the vacancy.