TUPELO, Miss. — Officials from the City of Tupelo, the NTSB, and the Lee County Coroner’s Office gathered to release more information in the deadly plane crash that left four people dead.
The tragic accident happened Monday morning.
Lee County Coroner Carolyn Green identified the victims as pilot Henry L. Jackson, 75, his wife Gwynn Groggel, 70, Dr. Charles Torti, 69 and Carrie Torti, 59.
All were from Kerrville, Texas.
She said they have communicated with the victims’ families and are in the process of positively identifying the victims using dental records.
It should only take a couple of days for those results to come back in.
The NTSB investigation is scheduled to wrap up by Tuesday evening, with a preliminary report being released in the next 10 days.
A more detailed report will be released in the next couple of months.
However, the NTSB did provide some new information on the deadly crash.
Prior to the accident, the pilot made two radio calls asking to return to the Tupelo Regional Airport due to smoke in the cockpit, said Millicent Hoidal with the NTSB.
The plane was given clearance to return to the airport when it suddenly went down.
Investigators said the smoke in the cockpit could have been caused by a number of things, but they won’t know which until they complete their investigation.
Hoidal went on to say witnesses on the scene reported seeing debris falling from the plane.
The city of Tupelo is expected to release photos of the crash sight once the investigation is complete.
The Texas Wing Civil Air Patrol identified Jackson and Groggel as members and victims of the crash, “They were members of the Kerrville Composite Squadron and were responsible for starting the squadron back in the 1990s.”
All four were killed when the Beechcraft Bonanza 36 crashed around 8:30 a.m. shortly after takeoff.
The two couples were headed to Charlottesville, Virginia according to FlightAware.
Officials told the media the aircraft was a private plane that stopped in Tupelo Sunday for a layover.
Four planes have crashed at Tupelo Regional between 2005 and 2013 according to am National Transportation Safety Board database.
The last fatal crash happened August 17, 2011 when a pilot was killed as their plane crashed into a tree and a road.
New info from the @NTSB on deadly crash in Tupelo pic.twitter.com/RVMpUohw57
— Michael Quander WUSA (@MikeQReports) May 17, 2016