The pilot who was killed when his plane crashed into Eagle Mountain Lake earlier this month was flying to get lunch, according to a preliminary report from the National Transportation Safety Board.
The Champion 7EC airplane “sustained substantial damage” during a crash about 12:40 p.m. Oct. 7 near Fort Worth.
The pilot, 60-year-old Stephen Spence of North Richland Hills, died in the crash. He was the only person aboard, according to investigators.
The pilot’s family told investigators the plane was based at the Flying Oaks Airport in Fort Worth and Spence was flying somewhere to get lunch then return, according to the report. The intended location for landing is unknown.
Sky conditions were clear and visibility was 10 miles at the time of the crash, the report says.
Security video footage from private property on the shore of the lake showed the plane gradually descending about a 45-degree angle into the water before coming to a rest nose down in an area about 10 feet deep, investigators wrote in the report. The plane’s fuselage and both wings were damaged.
The report said the wreckage — besides the right wing and part of the engine — was recovered from the lake and taken to another location for examination.
There was no Automatic Dependent Surveillance-Broadcast data, which provides location information for the aircraft, associated with the flight, according to the report.
Spence held a private pilot certificate and the plane was purchased in November 2004, Federal Aviation Administration records show.
Spence’s passions in life were his family and aviation, according to his obituary.
“If it had wings, Steve could fly it,” the obituary says. “If it didn’t have wings, Steve could build them, attach them, and fly them as well.”
Spence first got his pilot’s wings on small aircrafts, was employed at Lockheed Martin for more than two decades and got to regularly fly the blimp during the Dallas Stars games, according to his obituary.
He competed in flying competitions and shared his hobby of building model airplanes with his dad and later his sons.
“Fly high Steve in those endless blue skies and tailwinds,” his obituary read.
