{"id":401909,"date":"2026-09-16T22:20:11","date_gmt":"2026-09-16T22:20:11","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/401909\/"},"modified":"2026-09-16T22:20:11","modified_gmt":"2026-09-16T22:20:11","slug":"plane-made-steep-turn-immediately-after-takeoff-in-fatal-tampa-executive-airport-crash","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/401909\/","title":{"rendered":"Plane made steep turn immediately after takeoff in fatal Tampa Executive Airport crash"},"content":{"rendered":"<p class=\"text | article-text\">TAMPA, Fla. (<a href=\"https:\/\/www.mysuncoast.com\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" title=\"https:\/\/www.mysuncoast.com\/\">WWSB<\/a>) &#8211; A preliminary federal report says a small experimental plane turned sharply left shortly after taking off from Tampa Executive Airport before crashing Sept. 3, killing the pilot and a passenger.<\/p>\n<p class=\"text | article-text\">The plane was headed to Elizabeth City, North Carolina, according to the National Transportation Safety Board.<\/p>\n<p class=\"text | article-text\">Investigators said the aircraft lifted off about halfway down the airport\u2019s 5,000-foot runway at a ground speed of about 80 knots, or 92 mph. It then made a 180-degree left turn while climbing and banking steeply before descending nose-first into the ground.<\/p>\n<p class=\"text | article-text\"><a href=\"https:\/\/www.mysuncoast.com\/2026\/09\/03\/two-dead-small-aircraft-crash-hillsborough-county\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" title=\"https:\/\/www.mysuncoast.com\/2026\/09\/03\/two-dead-small-aircraft-crash-hillsborough-county\/\">Two dead in small aircraft crash near Tampa Executive Airport<\/a><\/p>\n<p class=\"text | article-text\">The crash happened in a wooded area of a state water management facility about one-third mile northwest of the runway. The aircraft came to rest upside down, and a fire after the crash destroyed much of it.<\/p>\n<p class=\"text | article-text\">The NTSB said the pilot correctly repeated air traffic control\u2019s takeoff instructions before departing. Investigators said they received no further communication from the plane after takeoff.<\/p>\n<p class=\"text | article-text\">The aircraft was an amateur-built Evolution plane assembled from a kit in 2020, according to the report. It was on a personal flight.<\/p>\n<p class=\"text | article-text\">The pilot and passenger died. Their names were not included in the preliminary report.<\/p>\n<p class=\"text | article-text\">The NTSB has retained the wreckage for further examination. The agency has not determined what caused the crash.<\/p>\n<p>Copyright 2026 WWSB. All rights reserved.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"TAMPA, Fla. (WWSB) &#8211; A preliminary federal report says a small experimental plane turned sharply left shortly after&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":401910,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[10],"tags":[159905,159904,159903,159902,135,156360,137,136],"class_list":["post-401909","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-tampa","tag-elizabeth-city-north-carolina-flight","tag-evolution-kit-plane","tag-experimental-aircraft-crash","tag-ntsb-preliminary-report","tag-tampa","tag-tampa-executive-airport-plane-crash","tag-tampa-headlines","tag-tampa-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/401909","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=401909"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/401909\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/401910"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=401909"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=401909"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=401909"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}