Federal investigators have released new details about the plane crash near Wimberley that killed five people, saying a Cessna 421C went down at 11:03 p.m. on April 30 after the pilot reported icing and asked to descend. The preliminary National Transportation Safety Board report says the aircraft crashed in a wooded area near a private residence and was destroyed.
The plane left River Falls Airport in Amarillo around 9:10 p.m. on a personal flight to New Braunfels National Airport under instrument flight rules. During the trip, the pilot told air traffic controllers the plane’s pitot heat was inoperative and that the pitot tube had iced over, then said he was using backup gauges and needed to get lower to warm the aircraft. Shortly after clearance to descend, he acknowledged a frequency change but made no further radio transmissions.
That silence came a minute before the final signal was recorded, and flight tracking data showed several erratic maneuvers, including a near 180-degree turn. The NTSB said temperatures at altitude were between minus 2 and minus 6 degrees Celsius, or about minus 21 Fahrenheit, and preliminary findings indicated the aircraft encountered freezing conditions in the minutes before impact. A nearby homeowner heard the crash, saw flames and called emergency responders.
Investigators found debris scattered over about 1.25 miles and said the pattern was consistent with an in-flight breakup, followed by a post-impact fire on the ground. The report is still preliminary, and the investigation remains ongoing, but the details released so far point to a flight that was fighting icing, losing contact and breaking apart before it hit the ground.
