FAA: Engine failure may have caused fatal plane crash

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McALLEN – An engine failure during take off may have caused a Wednesday night plane crash near Dodge Arena, according to preliminary data released by the Federal Aviation Administration this morning.

The crash, which killed a 24-year-old Mexican woman and severely injured the single-engine plane’s pilot, occurred shortly after the aircraft stopped for fuel at McAllen-Miller International Airport.

The pair was flying from Houston to their home in Tampico, Tamps., when the plane went down just before 7 p.m. on a stretch of South 10th Street, between Dicker Drive and Military Highway.

The pilot, identified as 34-year-old Jose Francisco Ortiz, was taken to an area hospital before being transferred to San Antonio’s Brooke Army Medical Center with burns to 90 percent of his body, Justice of the Peace Rosa Treviño.

Treviño would not reveal the name of Ortiz’s passenger Wednesday night, because her family had yet to be notified.

“She was burned to the bone,” Treviño said. “Luckily there was no traffic coming and going because it was right on the bridge.”

The plane went down south of Military Highway minutes later and skidded to a stop on 10th Street about one mile north of Hidalgo’s Dodge Arena. The crash site is about 2 1/2 miles south of the McAllen airport.

Debris was scattered for about 50 feet along the roadway, and there were visible scorch marks in the sorghum field adjacent to the road.

The crash is the area’s second in a week. Last week, U.S. Customs and Border Protection pilot Clinton Thrasher died when his Cessna 182R went down on a ranch north of San Manuel, about a mile north of the Hidalgo County line.

EARLY REPORTS
Just before losing control of the plane Wednesday night, Ortiz sent out a Level 3 alert to the airport’s air traffic controllers. The alert is a broad emergency signal that could mean there was smoke or fire outside or inside the plane, said Enrique Castillo, the McAllen airport’s spokesman.

But the FAA’s early data indicates the plane’s engine failed during take off, according to a report released on the agency’s Web site.

While it remains too early to pinpoint the exact cause of the crash, indications that mechanical malfunctions could be to blame would have come from investigators on scene or even the pilot himself, said Roland Herwig, an Oklahoma City-based spokesman for the FAA.

“He could have called in the cause of his problems before the plane went down,” he said. Records for the aircraft, a Lancair IV-P, indicate it was classified as “experimental” and list it as being “amateur built.”

At least four previous crashes involving planes of the same model were linked to engine malfunction, according to an NTSB database. Aircraft of the same model have been involved in at least 11 crashes since 2002, seven of which involved fatalities.

NTSB investigators are expected to release their own preliminary report next week and a probable cause for the crash several months later.

WRECKAGE SNARLS MORNING COMMUTE
Emergency crews remain at the scene this morning, blocking off the roadway until NTSB investigators can assess the crash site and forcing authorities to divert traffic between Dicker Drive and Military Highway.

Authorities urge morning drivers to avoid the area by taking an alternate route, such as 23rd Street.

The stretch of 10th Street near Dodge Arena is expected to remain closed until Friday morning, said Amy Rodriguez, a local spokeswoman for the Texas Department of Transportation.


*Jose Francisco Ortiz was declared dead a few moments ago. More on that as it is being released and we are notified any further.