Plane was sold months before crash that killed all 10 aboard
DALLAS — Officials have not yet released the identities of the 10 people killed when a small plane crashed at a suburban Dallas airport, but the aircraft’s former owner said Monday that he sold it earlier this year to a Texasbased company.
No information has been released to explain why the Beechcraft BE350 King Air crashed into a hangar and burst into flames Sunday morning after taking off from Addison Municipal Airport. Officials have said two crew members and eight passengers were killed.
The plane was scheduled to fly to St. Petersburg, Fla. Witnesses and local authorities said the aircraft struggled to gain altitude then veered into the hangar not far from a busy commercial strip and densely populated residential neighborhoods.
Todd DeSimone, general manager of jet charter company Planemasters based in Chicago, said Monday that he sold the plane to a company based in Addison called EE Operations.
No one responded to a message left with EE Operations.
Federal Aviation Administration spokesman Lynn Lunsford said Monday that the twinengine plane’s tail number, N511EF, was registered in April. The FAA registry confirmed that the plane was registered to EE Operations.
Lunsford said Monday that the pilots on Sunday used the plane’s previous tail number in radio communications and for the flight plan, and that questions about why they were using the old number would be addressed in the investigation.
The National Transportation Safety Board sent a team to investigate at the airport north of Dallas, and officials said during a Sunday evening news conference that it was too early to determine what caused the crash.
Edward Martelle, a spokesman for the town of Addison, said the plane was taking off at the south end of the airport and had just lifted off the runway when it veered left, dropped its left wing and went into the hangar.
David Snell, who was getting ready to fly from Addison with a friend on Sunday morning, told KDFWTV that the plane didn’t sound right on takeoff.
“It looked like it was clearly reduced power. I didn’t know if it was on purpose or not, but then, when the plane started to veer to the left, you could tell it couldn’t climb,” Snell said.
Peter Drake said he saw the plane crash into the hangar.
“He got onto the runway, went down the runway, started taking off. He got to about 200 feet, and I saw him starting to lose power and his altitude, and then I see him just roll over and came straight down right into the building,” Drake said.
Air traffic control tower audio from around the time of the crash does not capture any pilot indicating an emergency or trouble with a plane. But pilots waiting to take off soon thereafter can be heard seeking updates and being told repeatedly to wait.