VENICE, Fla — The National Transportation Safety Board has released new details in the small plane crash that killed the aircraft's pilot, a mother and daughter in Venice back in December.
The pilot, Christian Kath, along with his wife, Misty, and 12-year-old daughter, Lily, had flown Saturday from St. Petersburg to Venice for dinner, "with every intention" of returning home that night, police said earlier. They never arrived.
It happened just after 7:30 p.m. back on Dec. 3. The crash happened during takeoff on the return flight to St. Pete-Clearwater International Airport. According to NTSB, the small airplane, a Piper PA28, was departing runway 23 at Venice Municipal Airport (VNC) when the problem occurred.
The runway at VNC was 5,000 feet long. The airplane lifted from the runway at about 4,100 feet in which the plane climbed to about 50 feet, going about 101 mph. Over the remaining 900 feet of runway, the airplane accelerated to 103 mph and climbed to about 50 feet. Over the next four seconds, the track data showed two plots, both at an altitude of 75 feet at about 108 mph before the airplane descended.
Exactly 16 seconds after takeoff, the airplane crashed offshore about 1,800 feet out from the end of runway 23, NTSB said in its report.
Around the time of the crash, "dark night conditions" were present around VNC.
A weather report at the time of the crash showed 8 mph winds and a broken ceiling at 5,000 feet above ground level and 7 miles of visibility.
Surveillance video from VNC displayed an airplane leaving the runway with little to no angle of climb into a dark sky over dark water "with no discernible horizon."
Kath, the pilot of the flight, was never found. NTSB said he held a private certificate with a rating for airplane single-engine land. His most recent FAA third-class medical certificate was issued on Jan. 27, 2022, and he had 10 total hours of flight experience on that date. Kath's logbook was not recovered.
According to NTSB, the pilot conducted his flight training and rented the plane involved in the crash from the same operator. An FAA aviation safety inspection revealed the pilot had accrued 74.2 hours of flight experience, of which 67.6 were in the accident airplane make and model. Kath received his private pilot certificate on July 31, 2022, and accrued 13.5 hours of flight experience since that date.
The airplane in the crash was manufactured in 1976 and its most recent 100-hour inspection was conducted on Nov. 2, 2022, at 7,653 total aircraft hours.
Most of the wreckage from the crash into the Gulf was salvaged. An examination on the engine revealed no pre-impact mechanical anomalies would have prevented normal operation, NTSB reports.