Four days before his plane crashed into the I-285 median wall, killing everyone on board, former Asheville police officer Greg Byrd barely cleared a thicket of trees at the end of the DeKalb-Peachtree Airport runway.
His mechanic estimated only 50 feet separated Byrd’s single-engine aircraft from the trees, according to a report released Wednesday by the National Transportation Safety Board. The report details evidence collected by investigators but offers no opinions on what may have caused the May 2015 crash. The impact and fire brought traffic in both directions to a standstill for hours but resulted in no injuries on the ground.
Three minutes after take-off, Byrd told the control tower he was "having some trouble climbing" before reporting he was "going down at the intersection." A witness told NTSB investigators the engine sounded like it was at "wide open throttle" before it crashed, exploding into flames.
Another witness, watching from beyond the departure end of the runway, said the plane was moving slowly and only was only “75 to 100 feet” above ground when it went over his head. He added that the engine sounded normal, despite the slow speed.
The calculated density altitude — the elevation the plane thinks it has reached — on the day of the crash, according to the NTSB, was about 2,259 feet, more than twice the actual elevation at PDK.
“As the air gets warmer, it’s less dense, so you’re engine isn’t producing as much power and your wing is not as effective, so you take a penalty in performance,” private pilot Jeremy Taylor told Channel 2 Action News.
Another possible factor could be the weight carried by the Piper Lance. Maximum takeoff and landing weight for the aircraft was 3,600 lbs., according to its pilot operating handbook. The NTSB put the weight on the plane that day at 3,624 pounds, encompassing 94 gallons of fuel, an estimated cargo weight of 216 lbs and the collective weight of the four persons aboard at 690 pounds.
“The two big red flags are the density altitude and the heavy weight,” Taylor told Channel 2.
The report details Greg Byrd’s concerns before his final take-off. On the same day he called the mechanic, Byrd called his flight instructor to tell him about his difficulty gaining altitude but said he had conducted “pre- and post-flight engine checks and noted no problems.”
The following day, Byrd texted his mechanic that he conducted a test flight and while “the run-up was good … he wasn’t getting full rpm at full power while static,” according to the NTSB report. Thirty minutes later, the pilot called the mechanic and told him he had flown the airplane and “everything was normal.”
PDK has a reputation for being a challenging place to take off from, largely because of its urban setting.
“There’s really not many places to go” if an emergency landing is required,” Brian Michael, a Stone Mountain computer programmer who has flown into PDK dozens of times, told the AJC after the crash.
The NTSB’s final report on the crash is expected next month.
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