The National Transportation Safety Board has released an aviation accident report following a plane crash in Farmington, Connecticut, in early September.
The parking brake handle in the cockpit, and the respective valve that it controlled, were both found in the brake set position.
In the report, the NTSB said that two witnesses observed the takeoff, with one reporting the airplane was slower than they had seen during previous takeoffs. One witness noted a puff of blue-colored smoke from the backside of the airplane.
A third witness, who was beyond the departure end of the runway, noted the airplane departed the runway in a level attitude, but after clearing the runway, the airplane’s nose pitched up but was not climbing.
The victims of the crash were identified as 55-year-old William O’Leary of Bristol, who was a pilot, 57-year-old Mark Morrow of Danbury, who was the second pilot, and the two passengers 33-year-old Courtney Haviland of Boston, MA, and her husband, 32-year-old William Shrauner.
