4 responses

• todd May 24, 2008
   

  how the hell do you hit a building in montana with a plane? the place is empty! this is a spectacular failure.

   
• jessica May 24, 2008
   

  "I just watched the light come out of the sky," witness Mike Krause told The Billings Gazette. "To me it looked like the plane was upside down. And then it just came straight down into the lot."

   
• jessica May 24, 2008
   

  Ouch! What a crash! Notgneiss probably has a speculation or two about the cause of this crash. Depending on the state of the pilot's body, they might be able to do an autopsy to try to figure out if some kind of health problem might be to blame. It sounds rather sudden.

   
• notgneiss May 24, 2008
   

  The crash investigation will belong to the NTSB, not the FAA. I've never known of an accident report that included an autopsy (I read NTSB accident reports for fun and to keep myself well acquainted with mortality). The examination usually starts with an analysis of the debris pattern, of the physical damage done to each part of the craft, and of the instruments. It's surprising how much information survives -- for example, they'll examine the vanes in the vacuum pump to see whether it might have failed before the crash (which would indicate a failure of the attitude indicator leading to pilot confusion about the true direction of "up." There's not enough information in the story to form an opinion.