Report provides new details into deadly plane crash on I-285

DEKALB COUNTY, Ga. — Fifteen months after a plane plummeted and crashed into a median on Interstate 285, a new, detailed report is providing new insight into what may have happened.
 
The single engine plane crashed on I-285 at Peachtree Industrial Boulevard in May 2015 just after take-off from the DeKalb Peachtree Airport.
 
Channel 2 investigative reporter Aaron Diamant obtained the NTSB Factual Report on the crash Wednesday.
 
The report provided no conclusions into the crash just all the evidence investigators collected.
 
However it still provides the best insight yet into the plane's fiery crash just minutes after it took off from PDK last May.
 
"Really close to home, you know it really bothered me the day it happened. I was out flying as well," said pilot Jeremy Taylor, who was in the air near PDK in May 2015, when the plane crashed.

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"I just remember getting all the calls and texts from people wanting to know, A, that I was OK, but what happened?" Taylor said.

Pilot Greg Byrd, his sons Phillip and Christopher, and Christopher’s fiancé Jackie Kulzer died in the crash.

On Wednesday, more than 15 months after the crash, the NTSB finally published its "factual report" on all the evidence investigators collected.

Diamant asked Taylor to take a look at the findings

"The two big red flags are the density altitude and the heavy weight," Taylor said. %

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PDK sits at just over 1,000 feet above sea level, but density altitude is the altitude the plane thinks its flying.

In the report, investigators calculated it at 2,259 feet that day based on weather conditions at PDK.

"As the air gets warmer, it's less dense, so your engine isn't producing as much power and your wing is not as effective, so you take a penalty in performance," Taylor said.

Before the crash, Greg Byrd told the tower he was having trouble climbing.

The report also shows investigators calculated the loaded plane weighed 3,624 pounds, but “according to the Pilot Operating Handbook (POH) the maximum takeoff and landing weight for the aircraft was 3,600 lbs."

And while Taylor said the plane was probably right at that maximum weight after its run-up and taxi out, "It leaves no margin for error."

Cox Media Group