The National Transportation and Safety Board released its preliminary report of a plane crash on Percy Priest Lake that killed seven people.
Gwen Shamblin Lara, founder and spiritual leader of Remnant Fellowship Church, and husband, actor Joe Lara were among the dead. Joe Lara was best known for playing Tarzan in the 1996-1997 TV series.
Written content from Rebekah Hammonds
The Cessna 501 departed at 10:53 a.m. The report details the moments the pilot made contact with Nashville departure control and when contact was lost.
At 10:55 a.m., “the controller instructed the pilot to climb and maintain 15,000 ft msl, but there was no response. The controller then made multiple attempts to re-establish communications with the airplane; however, there were no further communications.”
Radar data shows that the airplane made a series of heading changes along with several climbs and descents before it entered a steep, descending left turn. “The last radar return, at 10:55 a.m. indicated the airplane was at an altitude of about 700 ft msl, descending about 31,000 ft-per-minute, on a heading of 090 degrees,” the report stated.”
A fisherman described seeing the plane hit the water in a “straight down” nose-first attitude. He did not see any evidence of fire or an explosion. It crashed in a shallow section of the lake that was about 2 to 8-ft-deep, the report states.
A total of seven people were on board. All of them died in the crash.
About two-thirds of the plane was recovered from the lake, which included both engines, the main cabin door, portions of the main cabin windows, the left nose baggage door, all three- landing gear, most of the tail section, and sections of both wings, including portions of the flaps and ailerons.
Several fractured seat frames and pieces of the interior were also recovered.
The airplane was not equipped; nor was it required to be equipped with a flight data recorder (FDR) or a cockpit voice recorder (CVR). Read more from News 5
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