NAPLES, Fla. — Fog so thick you could barely see in front of you and a pilot who called the wrong airport are some of the issues uncovered by Fox 4 Investigates after a New Year’s Day plane crash at the Naples Airport.
The Federal Aviation Administration has now opened an investigation into the crash, which did not include any injuries.
According to the Naples Police Department, the pilot told officers the plane lost power less than 100 feet above the ground.
“The pilot then advised he attempted to land back on the runway but could not see due to heavy fog and the plane pushed off the flight path,” Naples police said in a statement.
The pilot and three adults were all uninjured.
Airplane crashes overnight at Naples Airport, no injuries reported
“There’s numerous buildings that are damaged,” said Robin King, Communications Director with the Naples Airport Authority.
“The airplane had just taken off, about 1:00 A.M. It did not gain much altitude. We do not know what happened. We can’t even speculate what happened to the airplane.”
DENSE FOG REPORTED
Naples rang in the New Year under a low cloud of fog.
The National Weather Service issued a Dense Fog Advisory just before 7:00 P.M. Tuesday.
The Naples Airport weather observing system showed fog present starting at 11:19 P.M.
By 12:53 A.M. on New Year’s Day, less than 10 minutes before the crash, current weather conditions showed a ground visibility of 0 feet and a vertical visibility of 100 feet.
“These were very dangerous conditions to be flying in,” said Robert Katz, a Commercial Pilot and longtime flight instructor.
According to the FAA’s website, pilots are required to file an Instrument Flight Plan anytime the visibility is less than three miles and 1,000 feet of vertical visibility.
However, the website FlightAware.Com, which tracks the movement of planes, shows no flight plans for that particular flight in the last 14 days.
The plane is registered to Ronald C Calugar out of Bunnell, FL.
It is not clear if Calugar was the pilot, however he does have an active pilot’s license and instrument rating, according to FAA records.
Calugar could not be reached for comment.
Naples Airport officials say the plane was scheduled to fly to Flagler County.
PHONE CALL TO THE WRONG AIRPORT
The FAA requires pilots “to become familiar with all available information concerning a planned flight prior to departure,” including all forms of communication.
At the Naples Airport, any pilot filing a flight plan after midnight is required to call a control center in Miami.
But a recording obtained by Fox 4 Investigates shows the pilot appears to have called the wrong airport.
In the recording, a pilot is heard calling the frequency of the Fort Myers control center three times in the span of two minutes.
Each time, the pilot gives a tail number that matches the plane that crashed.
The Fort Myers control center was closed at the time, no similar calls were placed to the center in Miami.
Minutes later, the pilot took off and quickly crash landed.
