Investigators spent the day combing the engine and the crumpled body of the badly burned single-engine plane in hopes of finding an explanation for the crash a day earlier at College of the Ozarks in southwest Missouri, said Tim Sorensen, safety investigator with National Transportation Safety Board.
The probe will now center on other factors, such as pilot error, Sorensen said. It likely will be at least six months before a final report is released, he said.
``We found no anomalies with the engine or the air frame,'' Sorensen said
The Piper PA-32, which seats six people, was returning to the Dallas-Fort Worth area when it failed to become airborne, plunged down a ravine and burst into flames.
The Taney County coroner had not yet released the names of the five victims by Tuesday afternoon. Family members in Texas told the Fort Worth Star-Telegram and The Dallas Morning News that those killed were pilot Steve Buchanan, 60, of Burleson, Texas, a retired Dallas firefighter; his daughter, Lezli Graham, 37, of Arlington, Texas; her husband, Byron Graham, 37; and their children, daughter Kasey, 14, and son, Cade, 3.
They flew into the airport Saturday. It was unclear what they were doing in the area.
NTSB and Federal Aviation Administration investigators moved the wreckage to a building on the college campus Tuesday morning. The engine, with a twisted propellor, was in the hangar where Sorensen spoke to the media.
The debris was contained in a 50-foot area in a thick stand of trees, he said.
Sorensen said there was nothing to indicate whether the plane had lost power, despite information released from the FAA. He said there was no immediate explanation for the heavy, black skid mark left on the runway that had caused some local authorities to speculate the pilot had attempted to abort takeoff.
There also was nothing immediately found to indicate the plane was overloaded, Sorensen said. The plane refueled just before taking off, authorities have said.
``At this point, no conclusions have been reached,'' he said. ``The investigation is ongoing.''
A data recorder is not standard on such planes. There also is no control tower at M. Graham Clark Airport on the college campus in Point Lookout.
Pilots in the area will sometimes talk to each other, but Sorensen said he had seen nothing yet to indicate Buchanan had radioed for help.
Investigators planned to return to their offices Wednesday, resuming the probe from there.
The first at the scene were an off-duty flight nurse and a mechanic who ran from the Cox Air Care 2 helicopter service facility near the end of the runway, said Susan Crum, program director for the Cox flight stations in Springfield and Point Lookout.
Brian Stamps, a College of the Ozarks student, said he was on a mower at the airport when he heard a noise, turned and saw a plume of smoke at the end of the runway.
``At first, I thought a car had crashed on the highway,'' Stamps said. ``By the time I got down there, the EMTs were already there.''
Camille Howell, spokeswoman for the college, said the crash was the first fatal accident at the airport in at least 20 years. In December 1999, six people died when a college-owned plane en route to the airport crashed into a hillside about four miles to the north. That crash killed two professors, their wives, a pilot and a student pilot.
``Our hearts and sympathy go out to the family and friends of these victims,'' Howell said. ``We know firsthand the grief and sorrow.''
