NTSB: Poor condition of wreckage to slow plane crash investigation

The lack of a distress call and flight data recorder, coupled with mangled and charred wreckage, will make finding the cause of Saturday’s fiery airplane crash in Louisiana extremely challenging, federal officials said Sunday. National Transportation Safety Board Vice Chairman Bruce Landsberg said it could take 12 to 18 months to figure out why the two-engine plane fell from the sky about a minute after taking off from Lafayette Regional Airport. The plane crashed near a post office and caught fire in seconds, leaving the ground littered with wreckage. Five of six people on board were killed. The plane was en route to Atlanta for the Peach Bowl between LSU and Oklahoma. Among those killed was sports broadcaster Carley McCord, daughter-in-law of LSU assistant coach Steven Ensminger.

The plane went down in a part of the city with banks, fast food chains and other businesses. Three people on the ground were hurt. Local authorities identified the sole survivor from the plane as a 37-year-old man. He was hospitalized but his condition was not immediately known Sunday.

■ A single-engine plane crashed into a two-story house Sunday in Prince George’s County, Md., killing the unidentified pilot and sparking a fire, authorities said. No others were injured.