Major Airport Fails to Notice Deadly Crash

Another plane eventually noticed Nashville wreckage
By Rob Quinn,  Newser Staff
Posted Oct 30, 2013 3:59 AM CDT
Major Airport Fails to Notice Deadly Crash
Wreckage of the small plane at Nashville International Airport.   (foxnashville)

A small plane crashed and burned at Nashville International Airport early yesterday, killing the pilot—but the exact time of the crash is unknown because nobody at the airport noticed it, CNN reports. The airport's control tower is staffed around the clock, but the airport wasn't aware of the incident until another plane spotted the wreckage of the single-engine Cessna-172 at around 9am. FAA investigators, who say there was fog and low visibility overnight, believe the crash may have gone unnoticed for up to six hours.

The plane was registered to the Windsor Flying Club in Ontario, Canada, and investigators say it's not clear whether the pilot had made a distress call or had been in contact with air traffic controllers. "We will want to understand what the circumstances were that caused it to go undiscovered for so long," a National Transportation Safety Board spokesman tells the Tennessean. The crash didn't cause any delays at the airport, which is ranked 34th-busiest in the US, with more than 10 million passengers last year. (More Nashville stories.)

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