| | INDIANAPOLIS -- Preliminary information from the National Transportation Safety Board indicates that race-car owner Tony Bettenhausen followed proper procedures prior to the Valentine's Day plane crash that killed him, his wife and two business associates.
Information released Thursday by the NTSB gave a glimpse of Bettenhausen's final moments as he piloted his plane over Leesburg, Ky.
Bettenhausen called air traffic controllers and reported that his Indianapolis-bound plane was beginning to accumulate ice. He asked to climb to 12,000 feet, away from the icing conditions.
Seconds later, the controller agreed. Less than a minute after
that, Bettenhausen reported that he was above the clouds, but that
ice was still forming. He also said his windshield and wings were
"covered with ice."
It was his last transmission. Radar showed Bettenhausen's
Beechcraft Baron never made it to 12,000 feet.
Instead, about two minutes before the plane crashed, it was
recorded at 11,200 feet. In about one minute, the plane plunged
nearly two miles in what aircraft experts speculate might have been
a fatal spin.
James M. Thom, an associate professor in Purdue University's
aviation technology department, said the information in the NTSB
report leads him to speculate that the plane was level while
falling rapidly.
"Even if (Bettenhausen's) aircraft had recovered momentarily
from the spin, it probably was descending rapidly enough that there
was not an opportunity to break the downward momentum," Thom said.
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