CLEVELAND — It’s been three weeks since two Cleveland-area men were killed in a fatal plane crash outside New York City and questions remain about the flight’s final minutes.
According to a National Transportation Safety Board preliminary report, a hole was found inside an engine structure.
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But was that hole a result of the crash or did something go terribly wrong once the plane was in the air?
The catastrophic flight was just 35 minutes combined.
Online flight trackers show Baruch Taub and Binyamin Chafetz took off just before 5 p.m. on January 19 from New York City's JFK Airport.
Just 20 minutes later, the plane starts dropping altitude quickly, according to the tracker.
“I am declaring an emergency, our oil pressure is dropping,” the pilot can be heard saying on an air traffic control radio recording. “The engine is overriding right now.”
An NTSB investigation preliminary report indicated that "an examination of the engine revealed a hole in the top of the crankcase.” The report also stated the discovery of two fractured and entrapped connecting rob bolts adjacent to the hole.
3News Investigates went to a decades-long, Dallas-Based pilot and flight instructor, Robert Katz, to learn about how the problems detailed in the report could have come about.
“The failure occurs inside the crank case of the engine and did not happen on the ground,” Katz said. “[This] did not happen as the airplane was taxing for departure, this would've happened as the airplane was airborne.”
Katz has been following the crash alongside us.
“This is a catastrophic engine failure,” Katz told 3News Investigates. “The engine is under serious threat of seizing, meaning coming to a sudden stop at any moment. So therefore, it's necessary to get on the ground as quickly as possible.”
The online tracker indicated the plane fell roughly 5,000 feet in just four minutes.
“I don't have anything from the aircraft right now,” an air traffic controller said in the recording.
Pictures of the crash site posted to Twitter showed the plane debris scattered in a wooded area.
“Air traffic control suggested that he divert to Westchester County Airport, that was the closest runway available to him. He was reticent to do so and ultimately chose to do so, perhaps due to a more serious development in the function of the engine that was not articulated,” Katz said.
We asked if an engine issue like the one the NTSB found in the plane was preventable.
“All engines come with a 'TBO',” Katz said. “That means time between overhaul that's recommended by the manufacturer. It is not yet known if this engine was being operated past its TBO.”
As of three weeks post-crash, the plane Taub and Chafetz were in is still listed on the T&G Flying Club website.
3News Investigates has repeatedly tried to contact the owner of the aircraft, Laurence Rohl, throughout the course of our probe into T&G Flying Club. All of our messages were left unanswered.
And in another attempt to reach him, he remains comment-less and out of sight.
“Hi, this is Larry. Please leave a message. I might be up flying or on another phone call,” Rohl’s voicemail says.
NTSB investigators also noted electronics that were taken from the plane for potential data in the preliminary report, which Katz said will provide more context and scope as to what happened before and during the flight.
Our requests for all Federal Aviation Administration, or FAA, records regarding the plane's maintenance are still pending.
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