MEDFORD, Ore. – Tuesday marked two years since a deadly plane crash at a car dealership next to Medford’s airport.
Police say two people in the plane died. 69-year-old pilot Donald Sefton and his passenger 67-year-old Valorie Serpa.
The NTSB is investigating the cause of the crash. It released a preliminary report a month after the crash.
It says it typically takes 12 to 24 months to finish a full report, but it isn’t complete at this time.
The NTSB tells us that it looks at three broad areas in its investigation, the pilot, the airplane and the operating environment.
We interviewed the agency about its progress in cases like this last year.
“As we rule things out, we find what didn’t play a role in the accident, we’re typically left with just a handful, two, three, sometimes four issue areas that we can then further dig down into to determine how they played together, how they all came together to cause that accident,” said NTSB Spokesperson Peter Knudson in December , 2022.
According to the preliminary report from the NTSB, there was a cloud layer about 200 feet above ground level the day of the crash. Shortly after takeoff from Medford, ground controllers suddenly got a low altitude alarm from the plane, but there was no response from the pilot. The NTSB is confident they’ll be able to determine a probable cause and identify any contributing factors in the crash.
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