The federal agency looking into the deadly July 8 ultralight crash in White County says it expects to release its preliminary findings later this month. The National Transportation Safety Board is investigating the crash of a Geist Donald R Kolb Firestar II aircraft. The report, to include all the factual information learned to date about the crash, is expected to publish on July 23, according to Jen Gabris, a spokesperson for the NTSB.
NTSB is investigating the July 8, 2022, crash of an experimental amateur-built Kolb Firestar II near Cleveland, Georgia.
— NTSB Newsroom (@NTSB_Newsroom) July 10, 2022
The White County Coroner’s Office identified the deceased pilot as Lee Olson of Gainesville. Olson, 79, died early Sunday, two days after crashing at Mountain Air Park, a private grass airfield southeast of Cleveland.
“Witnesses stated that the aircraft took off and made a hard left bank and came down,” said White County Public Safety Director David Murphy. “As the aircraft came down it struck the roof of a building and crashed into the adjacent driveway.”
A medical helicopter flew the injured Olson to the trauma unit at Northeast Georgia Medical Center in Gainesville where he later died.
The coroner’s office sent Olson’s body to the State Medical Examiner’s Office in Decatur for an autopsy to determine his exact cause of death. “We don’t have the official cause of death but it’s believed everything was from the injuries sustained in the crash,” says Deputy Coroner Patrick Ward.
The crash caused a fuel leak that White County firefighters had to contain.
The Federal Aviation Administration and National Transportation Safety Board are investigating the cause of the crash.
