PEEBLES, OH (WTVB) – A National Transportation Safety Board preliminary report was released this week on the December 30, 2024 plane crash that killed Elite Air Service General Manager Rob Cole of Vicksburg.
Cole died when a 64-year-old Cessna 310D twin engine plane which departed earlier in the day from the Branch County Memorial Airport crashed near Peebles, Ohio. He was the only person on board.
The report which was posted on the web site flightsafety.org said according to the owner of the airplane, the purpose of the flight was to ferry the airplane, which he purchased in October, from the Branch County Memorial Airport to Alexander Salamon Airport in West Union, Ohio.
It went on to say that according to the owner, Cole elected to fly the ferry flight with the landing gear down. In addition, a fueler at the Branch County Memorial Airport said in the report that this was an older airplane that had some fuel leaks, and that the left main fuel tank could only hold half of its total capacity because fuel would leak out when the take was filled above that point. The fueler did not fill the right auxiliary tank because the fuel bladder had a leak.
Cole planned for a second pilot to follow him in another airplane. The second pilot would pick him up after the ferry flight was done. Throughout the flight, the two pilots communicated briefly about five times. Cole stated that everything was normal.
The last communication the two pilots had was when Cole radioed to the second pilot that he was about “20-30 miles away from the destination airport” and that he would begin descending. The second pilot noticed Cole’s plane was not at the West Union airport when he arrived.
After waiting for about a half hour, the second pilot elected to take off and retrace the flight path that he believed Cole was flying. He found the accident scene after flying for about 40 minutes.
A witness who lived at the property next to the accident said the engines of the airplane were “cutting out.” Both engines then “quit” and the airplane “went straight down” before it crashed on top of a steep hill.
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