The pilot of an amateur-built, experimental aircraft was convinced he could land the plane in spite of such low visibility that other, more experienced pilots diverted to airports farther inland, an investigator wrote.
Moments later, the aircraft missed the Spruce Creek Airport runway and then crashed to the ground during its attempted reapproach, killing the pilot and his passenger, according to a report published by the National Transportation Safety Board.
The Dec. 27, 2016 crash killed Daryl Ingalsbe, 67, and his partner, Deb Solsrud, 51. The aircraft, an Epic LT single-engine plane, had left the Millington, Tennessee Regional Jetport that afternoon and was headed to the Spruce Creek Fly-In, where a thick fog had set in, officials said.
The crash occurred on Taxiway Lindy Loop and witnesses said the plane nearly clipped two houses before it struck the ground.
A toxicology report showed that Ingalsbe was not under the influence of any impairing substances.
Fifteen minutes before the crash, Ingalsbe told the controller that he had "the visibility to get in there" and land the plane safely, the report stated.
One unidentified witness told the investigator, "I didn't hear anything for a few seconds. Then I heard a very loud, distinct corkscrewing sound. ... I then saw two wing-tip lights fall through the clouds straight down and heard an extremely loud thud," according to the report.
Another witness said he looked up from his lanai and saw the plane emerge from the fog nose-down and in a "fully developed spin."
Ingalsbe, who spent most of his time in Spicer, Minnesota, owned a house in the Port Orange fly-in community. He and Solsrud, who was from New London, Minnesota, had circumnavigated the world five months earlier in the very same aircraft, according to an interview Ingalsbe had done with a radio station in Minnesota.
One witness, who was identified in the report as a Federal Aviation Administration-designated pilot examiner, had been monitoring air-traffic communications with his hand-held radio. Throughout the day, smaller planes were being diverted from coastal-area airports to DeLand while commercial jets were being diverted from Daytona Beach to Orlando due to "below-minimum conditions," the witness told the investigator.
When he heard over the radio that a pilot was going to attempt an "instrument approach" to Runway 5, the witness drove there to watch. He told the investigator he knew Ingalsbe and added that he had a history of "careless and reckless" flying. The witness used his cellphone to record part of Ingalsbe's approach and the video was consistent with what the witness described to the investigator, according to the report.
An instrument approach is a series of FAA-approached maneuvers that a pilot can make from the beginning of an approach until the landing or until a pilot reaches the point when he or she can see the runway and make a visual landing.
Ingalsbe was survived by three adult children and seven grandchildren, along with his brother and two sisters. Solsrud was survived by two teenage children, along with her brother and two sisters.