{"id":475623,"date":"2026-09-25T19:28:40","date_gmt":"2026-09-25T19:28:40","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/475623\/"},"modified":"2026-09-25T19:28:40","modified_gmt":"2026-09-25T19:28:40","slug":"ntsb-releases-preliminary-report-on-northwest-fresno-california-plane-crash-that-killed-4-eady-family-members-3","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/475623\/","title":{"rendered":"NTSB releases preliminary report on northwest Fresno, California plane crash that killed 4 Eady family members"},"content":{"rendered":"

FRESNO, Calif. — The National Transportation Safety Board has released its preliminary report on a deadly plane crash in northwest Fresno, California on Sept. 5 that killed four members of the Eady family<\/a>: Danna, who piloted the aircraft, her husband, Craig, and two of their youngest sons.<\/p>\n

According to the report, surveillance video shows Eady and the other three passengers boarding a Grumman American Avn. Corp. AA-5 airplane at the owner’s home, located at the Sierra Sky Park Airport.<\/p>\n

The plane began its takeoff and aborted halfway down the runway. The airplane turned around at the end of the runway and went back to the owner’s home.<\/p>\n

Text messages between Eady and the owner show that she was experiencing a radio problem. According to additional messages, the plane’s owner contacted a mechanic to troubleshoot the radio issue.<\/p>\n

A few minutes later, the mechanic arrived and looked at the plane shortly before the airplane was seen taxiing toward the runway for the second time.<\/p>\n

The NTSB says witnesses near the runway saw the airplane begin to take off, and as it lifted off, the nose suddenly turned upward.<\/p>\n

According to witnesses, the engine sounded weak but did not misfire or sputter.<\/p>\n

The report goes on to say that the airplane continued down the runway with a “nose-high attitude” 30 to 40 feet above ground.<\/p>\n

Additional surveillance video shows the plane further down the runway before it flew out of view of the camera.<\/p>\n

NTSB says the crash happened approximately 1,000 feet northwest of the end of the runway at the top of a slope near trees.<\/p>\n

The first sign of impact was with a large branch near the top of a 40-foot tree that had recently been cut to comply with Federal Aviation Administration regulations for the airport.<\/p>\n

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The plane came to rest upright, but the nose landing gear was separated and found uphill near the impacted trees.<\/p>\n

The plane was mostly destroyed by fire that started after it crashed, which burned about one acre around the crash site.<\/p>\n

The wreckage was taken to a secure facility for further investigation.<\/p>\n

Emergency crews found Danna and Craig Eady outside of the wreckage with severe injuries, while the couple’s sons were later found dead at the scene.<\/p>\n

Danna and Craig Eady were both taken to the hospital.<\/p>\n

Danna Eady died on Sept. 5 in the evening from injuries suffered in the crash.<\/p>\n

Craig Eady had suffered severe burn wounds and died two days later, on Sept. 7, surrounded by family, including his oldest son and daughter.<\/p>\n

The two surviving children were not on the plane at the time of the crash.<\/p>\n

The video in the player above is from an earlier report.<\/p>\n

Copyright \u00a9 2026 KFSN-TV. All Rights Reserved.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"FRESNO, Calif. — The National Transportation Safety Board has released its preliminary report on a deadly plane crash…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":475624,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[31],"tags":[186906,112,114,113],"class_list":["post-475623","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-fresno","tag-186906","tag-fresno","tag-fresno-headlines","tag-fresno-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/475623","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=475623"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/475623\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/475624"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=475623"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=475623"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=475623"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}