Plane had rudder issue on first post-inspection flight before crashing in Boca, NTSB says
The family aboard a Cessna 310R that crashed and burned in Boca Raton near Interstate 95 in April were on the plane's first flight after an annual inspection and experienced an issue with the rudder that left it only able to make left turns, according to a preliminary National Transportation Safety Board investigation.
The small plane, built in 1977, took off from Boca Raton Airport just after 10 a.m. April 11 and was headed for Tallahassee on a personal flight. Video of the plane after takeoff showed it veering to the left, continuing in a left turn out of camera's view and could again be seen after re-entering the camera's view, still veering into a left turn, an NTSB report released Wednesday said.
Multiple witnesses recorded video that showed the plane flying to the left while at a low altitude. Both engines were operating at the time, the report said. Flight-tracking data showed a looping path where the plane made at least nine turns.
One of the two certified pilots aboard 'reported that they were having a problem with the airplane's rudder and that they could only make left turns,' the report said.
When the plane came crashing down just before 10:30 a.m., it initially struck several trees in the median of the road, then hit the road and continued nearly 400 feet away from the initial crash point to the 'main wreckage site,' according to the report, on the railroad tracks beneath the overpass at Glades Road and Military Trail near I-95. The impact flung the plane's left engine more than 300 feet away from the tracks.
The plane's pieces were 'highly fragmented,' and the blaze after impact consumed most of the main body of the plane and its cockpit, the report said. All major components of the destroyed plane were found in the wreckage, including the rudder near the initial crash site, which showed 'impact and thermal damage.'
Three family members were killed: Robert Stark, 81, of Boca Raton; Stephen Stark, 54, of Delray Beach; and Brooke Stark, 17, of Delray Beach. A 24-year-old man from Boca Raton driving a 2017 Toyota Prius also sustained minor injuries when he lost control while driving north on Military Trail near the fiery crash and hit a tree.
Victims ID'd in Boca plane crash; Military Trail reopens
Robert Stark was a certified private pilot with single-engine land and sea ratings, as well as multi-engine land and instrument ratings, Federal Aviation Administration records show. An instrument rating is earned by training to fly solely by referencing instruments. Stephen Stark was also a certified private pilot and had single-engine and multi-engine aircraft ratings.
Robert Stark was an experienced aerobatic competition pilot who competed in numerous contests, including for the U.S. advanced aerobatics team in an Advanced World Championship held in the Czech Republic in 1999.
WPEC-Ch. 12, the Sun Sentinel's news partner, previously reported that Brooke Stark was a senior at Atlantic Community High School in Delray Beach.
911 dispatchers were inundated with calls from people who witnessed the crash, from someone who was in a building across the street to a woman from the Boca Raton Airport Authority to drivers on I-95, calls previously obtained by the South Florida Sun Sentinel showed. They received so many calls that they answered with, 'Are you calling about the plane crash?'
Preliminary reports from the NTSB do not provide information about probable cause and contain only facts from the agency's initial investigation. Probable cause of crashes are included in the NTSB's final reports, which can take up to two years to complete.
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