Crashed Plane in South Dakota Had Smoke Plume

A pilot and three passengers killed in a plane crash apparently had tried to return to the Sioux Falls, S.D., airport after an air traffic controller said a plume of smoke was trailing their aircraft, federal investigators said in a report released Monday.

The preliminary National Transportation Safety Board report recounts previously unreleased details of the moments before the Dec. 9 crash that killed 54-year-old pilot Brian Blake and his three passengers, Kevin Anderson, 50, Joshua Lambrecht, 30, and 47-year-old Daniel Swets. All of them came from Sioux Falls except Lambrecht, of Brandon.

The report says the controller informed Blake about the smoke about 30 seconds after the CESSNA 421C took off, although he could not determine the source of the plume. The controller then advised the pilot that the smoke had stopped and cleared the plane to land. The pilot acknowledged the clearance but did not communicate with the controller thereafter.

Witnesses said the plane appeared to be trailing white smoke during takeoff, according to the report.

“They subsequently observed flames at the inboard side of the left engine,” the report said. “The airplane began a left turn, apparently in an attempt to return to the airport. As the airplane continued the turn, the flames and trail of white smoke were no longer visible.”

The nose of the plane dropped abruptly and hit the ground from an altitude of 800 to 1,000 feet, the report stated. It crashed in a field about 3/4 mile northwest of the airport.

The NTSB said Blake held a commercial pilot certificate and flight instructor certificate for single and multi-engine airplanes. The pilot’s most recent regulatory check was completed on Nov. 10.

The three passengers were heading to Rapid City for a robotics meeting.

Weather conditions recorded at the time of takeoff indicated clear skies and 10 miles of visibility, according to the report.

The report makes no recommendations or conclusions. A final cause of the crash may not be determined for a year to 18 months.

According to NTSB data, the last aviation crash it investigated in Sioux Falls was in 1984.