Police closed Blackrock Road in Yulee after a plane crash May 10, 2025. | News4Jax
Published on May 19, 2025 at 12:23 pm
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A preliminary report on a fatal plane crash into a Yulee yard on May 10 indicates that the plane’s cargo door popped open before takeoff from Nassau Airport, according to the National Transportation Safety Board.
But no definitive cause has been identified in the report, which details the final seconds of the single-engine Piper PA32RT as it dove and crashed right after takeoff, the report says.
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The 56-year-old pilot had dropped off his wife and their dogs at Fernandina Beach Municipal Airport that morning, then flown the Piper about six miles west to the Nassau Airport, near Blackrock Road. There, he was to finish loading the single-engine plane, then return to Fernandina Beach airport. They would then wait for thunderstorms to pass through the area before heading to Tennessee, the NTSB report said.
A security camera on a hangar at the Nassau Airport in Yulee recorded the Piper taxiing past, showing a cargo door on the nose popping open as it took off. Investigators found a case of oil and a bag of dog food on the runway, presumably from the plane.
It was not long before the plane began a rapid descent, the NTSB report says.
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Surveillance video from a home 550 feet north of the runway showed the airplane in a sharp descent before it hit a tree and the ground about 10 seconds after departing, the report states.
The aircraft left a crater on the ground about 24 feet from the tree it hit.
The pilot died in the crash, and fire consumed the cockpit and much of the fuselage after impact, the report says.
While the preliminary report does not cite any cause for the crash, it does state that preliminary review of weather radar data showed a line of intense precipitation moving through the area at the time of the accident.
A weather station at Fernandina Beach’s airport also reported light winds at the time of the crash, 10 miles of visibility, and scattered clouds at 2,300 feet above ground level with thunderstorms in the vicinity.
The investigation is continuing, NTSB says.
