Las Vegas Sun

December 2, 2009

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FAA releases audio recording in fatal plane crash

By Brian Eckhouse (contact)

Friday, Sept. 5, 2008 | 2:09 p.m.

N. Las Vegas Plane Crash

An experimental plane crashed into a home Friday morning in North Las Vegas, killing the pilot and two people on the ground.

Audio

Sun archives

A sound recording of the fatal flight that crashed into a North Las Vegas house on Aug. 22 -- the first of two deadly crashes in a six-day period involving planes that originated from North Las Vegas Airport -- was released to the public today by the Federal Aviation Administration.

Pilot Mack Creekmore Murphee Jr., a 76-year-old resident of Dayton, Nev., struggled to gain altitude after he took off in his four-seat, rear-propeller Velocity 137 RG at 6:28 a.m. Moments later, the plane crashed through the roof of a home owned by Jack and Lucy Costa, killing them and Murphee. The Costas lived at 2313 Langdon Way.

The recording is nearly an hour long and includes communication between air traffic controllers and the pilot at the beginning of the recording. A controller asks the pilot if he needs assistance beginning at the 32 minute, 50 second mark.

Discussion: 1 comment so far…

  1. By Planetearthcalling
    9/5/08 at 9:46 p.m.
    Suggest removal

    A brief transcript starting when the pilot was cleared for takeoff till when the tower lost communication with him would have been nice

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