An NTSB preliminary report released on Friday provides few clues as to why a Cessna Citation II failed to climb after takeoff and hit power lines before crashing, killing the pilot and passenger and injuring a person on the ground. The twinjet departed Runway 16 at Odessa-Schlemeyer Field Airport in Odessa, Texas, on August 20 on a planned IFR Part 91 flight to Houston Ellington Field. Weather was day VMC with a calm wind from the south.
The report cites a pilot witness who said the airplane’s engines at takeoff sounded “unusual.” He saw the twinjet as it flew near-level down the last one-third of the 5,003-foot-long runway at about 10 feet agl. The airplane crossed a road then collided with power lines and a restaurant before stopping about 150 yards south before a post-impact fire consumed most of the Citation.
Remnants of all the primary flight controls were located at the accident site. According to the report, a parking brake valve was found “in the disengaged position.” The cockpit voice recorder was located in the wreckage and sent to the NTSB recorders lab for analysis.
The 33-year-old accident airplane was registered in 2022 to TechCorr of Pasadena, Texas. Killed in the crash were Joseph Summa, the pilot and TechCorr CEO, and passenger Joleen Weatherly, senior administrative manager at the company.