Preliminary report: Landing gear appeared to fail in fatal Scottsdale plane crash
The National Transportation Safety Board released the preliminary report on its investigation into a deadly plane crash at Scottsdale Airport, giving new details into what may have transpired.
The report lays out how Learjet 35A owned by Mötley Crüe singer Vince Neil crashed into another aircraft after its landing gear appeared to fail, causing it to veer off the runway, killing a pilot and injuring several others.
According to the report, the plane departed from Florida on Feb. 10 before stopping to refuel in Austin, Texas. It then took off for Scottsdale where the fatal collision occurred.
Investigators reviewed a video from surveillance cameras and witnesses which showed the plane's left landing gear "trailing aft from its normal position."
The report states the plane began veering left, leaving the runway before colliding with a parked Gulfstream G200 at around 2:38 p.m. It added that the Learjet was not equipped with reverse thrusters and its drag chute was not deployed.
The airport's emergency response fire truck responded in a little over two minutes and sprayed fire retardant on the Gulfstream about five minutes later while the Scottsdale Fire Department arrived at roughly 2:47 p.m. The airport fire truck later sprayed fire retardant on the Learjet's right engine, which was still running, to shut it down.
The report states the right-seated passenger regained consciousness first and woke up the left-seated passenger who was thrown forward in the passenger cabin.
The right-seated passenger then used the emergency exit at around 2:48 p.m. and exited the plane carrying two small dogs before turning back to retrieve the other passenger.
The report notes that the same plane and flight crew had a "landing mishap" on June 20, 2024, in McAlester, Oklahoma, where the plane landed hard just before getting to the runway and bounced several times, causing both of the left main landing gear's tires to burst.
The report states the Learjet's owner hired a mechanic who worked on it for the previous owner to perform a hard-landing inspection. Investigators interviewed the mechanic who said he used a maintenance manual for all the work he performed.
It added that the Learjet's flight time and maintenance cycles since the 2024 hard landing took place was unknown. The flight crew did not make any radio calls about the plane's landing gear not working properly.
An official cause behind the landing gear's failure likely won't be known until the investigation's final report is published. Such reports can take between one to two years before being made available.
Read: Scottsdale crash aviation investigation preliminary report
Police identified the fatality as 78-year-old pilot Joie Vitosky.
Vitosky's daughter, Jana Schertzer, told The Arizona Republic that Vitosky began flying after joining the U.S. Marine Corps where he served several tours in the Vietnam War.
Rain Hannah Andreani, 43, is the only person on board the planes who has been publicly identified other than Vitosky.
Andreani is the girlfriend of Mötley Crüe lead singer Vince Neil. Neil owned the Learjet, according to a filing with the Wyoming secretary of state. He was not on board, according to the vocalist's legal representative Worrick Robinson IV, who posted a statement about the crash to the band's social media.
The NTSB lists 15 fatal aircraft incidents in the Scottsdale area and four incidents involving a serious injury, with the earliest going back to the 1970s.
Two of the serious injuries involved student pilots, with one pilot having a hard landing after the plane's engine lost power and another with a pilot having a forced landing after misjudging their altitude and clearance, according to NTSB reports.
The last fatal crash at the Scottsdale Airport was in 2018. A pilot, student pilot and four passengers were killed after the plane crashed shortly after takeoff.
This article originally appeared on Arizona Republic: Report: Fatal Scottsdale plane crash had previous 'landing mishap'
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