{"id":477675,"date":"2026-09-27T20:31:09","date_gmt":"2026-09-27T20:31:09","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/477675\/"},"modified":"2026-09-27T20:31:09","modified_gmt":"2026-09-27T20:31:09","slug":"ntsb-releases-preliminary-report-on-northwest-fresno-plane-crash-that-killed-4-2","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/477675\/","title":{"rendered":"NTSB Releases Preliminary Report on Northwest Fresno Plane Crash That Killed 4"},"content":{"rendered":"

FRESNO, Calif. (KFSN) \u2014 The National Transportation Safety Board has released its preliminary report on the deadly plane crash in Northwest Fresno on September 5 that killed 4 members of the Eady family: Danna<\/a>, who piloted the aircraft, her husband Craig, and two of their youngest sons.<\/p>\n

According to the report, surveillance video shows Danna and the other 3 passengers boarding a Grumman American Avn. Corp. AA-5 airplane at the owner\u2019s 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\u2019s home.<\/p>\n

Text messages between Danna and the owner show that she was experiencing a radio problem. According to additional messages, the plane\u2019s 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

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 \u201cnose-high attitude\u201d 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 1000 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

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\u2019s sons were later found dead at the scene.<\/p>\n

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

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

Craig had suffered severe burn wounds and died two days later, on September 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

\"\"<\/p>\n

Friends and family set up a support campaign<\/a> to help with expenses for the Eady family.<\/p>\n

Copyright \u00a9 2026 KFSN-TV. All Rights Reserved.<\/p>\n

Listen to the report by KMJ\u2019s Liz Kern.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"FRESNO, Calif. (KFSN) \u2014 The National Transportation Safety Board has released its preliminary report on the deadly plane…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":477676,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[31],"tags":[112,114,113],"class_list":["post-477675","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-fresno","tag-fresno","tag-fresno-headlines","tag-fresno-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/477675","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=477675"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/477675\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/477676"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=477675"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=477675"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=477675"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}