KEYSTONE HEIGHTS, Fla. – The Florida Highway Patrol and federal agencies are investigating a stunt plane crash at Keystone Airport that left a 46-year-old St. Augustine man dead.
Bradford County firefighters extinguished the resulting fire, and the scene has been secured. Take a look at the video of the aftermath below.
It is currently unknown what caused the crash. FHP is working with the National Transportation Safety Board (NTSB) and Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) on the investigation.
Ed Booth is a local aviation pilot and lawyer with decades of flight experience. He tracked the flight path of the crash.
Booth said the pilot was flying a single-seat EA-330, a world champion aerobatic aircraft.
He said the situation started a little after 10:30 a.m. The pilot was flying the plane in a rectangular shape, which demonstrates control of the aircraft.
“It shows a pilot who is in perfect control of his airplane and then for reasons we don’t understand at the moment loses control,” Booth said.
Booth said the plane rapidly went up 2,700 feet, then to 3,800 feet. Then it suddenly dropped down to 1,000 feet all in the span of 2 minutes.
“He’s 1,000 feet off the ground, going downhill at 13,440 feet per minute. That is not controlled flight,” Booth said.
Booth said the rapid, scary descent left his jaw dropped. He also said that the plane had been flown often in October, and the pilot pre-planned his appearance at the Keystone Airport.
Records show scheduled activity there from 9 a.m. to 5 p.m. Saturday. Another reason why Booth said this pilot was taking proper safety precautions.
“Even in that airplane, so something happened,” Booth said.
Patty Wagstaff is a stunt pilot who runs a flight school in St. Augustine. She was also a friend to the man who died in the crash.
“He is the most conservative, most safety-conscious guy, and I can’t help but think it wasn’t a physical issue,” Wagstaff said. “I know he just came off a long trip overseas...I’m convinced from what I hear from other people that were there, he wasn’t showing off, he wasn’t doing anything wrong, and he didn’t recover for some reason.”
Booth said that crashes like this do happen, with about 400 small aircraft fatalities a year in the U.S.
Wagstaff said the man loved doing competition flights, and he was a big part of the flight community. She also said that he has a teenage son.
Booth said he expects the investigation to take a year or more before a cause of the crash is determined.