No Mechanical Issues Found With Aircraft

It wasn't a mechanical problem that brought down a Cessna U206G Stationair last Thursday near Bloomington, IN, in an accident that claimed the lives of five Indiana University graduate music students. That's the word from the National Transportation Safety Board, which issued its Preliminary Report on the accident Wednesday.

Investigators found that the aircraft had fuel onboard, and all systems appear to have been functioning normally when the Stationair impacted "trees and terrain while on approach" to Monroe County Airport (BMG) shortly before midnight on April 20.

"The on-scene investigation did not reveal any pre-impact anomalies," the report concludes.

The NTSB also reports the instrument-rated pilot, 24-year-old Georgia Joshi, had filed a flight plan and had given no indication that her plane was experiencing problems in the moments leading up to the crash. According to the prelim, at approximately two minutes before the crash, a controller from the Terre Haute International Airport-Hulman Field air traffic control tower advised the flight that the airport's CTAF was 120.77.

The response from the aircraft's pilot was a polite "Thank you sir." No further communications were reported from the accident aircraft.

The airport was in instrument conditions at the time of the accident. According to the airport's recorded weather broadcast, at 2340 -- five minutes before the accident -- winds were out of the southwest at 5 knots, and visibility of one statute mile in mist. The sky was overcast at 100 feet, and the temperature of  17 degrees C was just one degree above the dew point.

The plane was on an ILS approach to Runway 35 when it went down.

FMI: Read the NTSB Preliminary Report