The National Transportation Safety Board's preliminary review of a crash that killed a small airplane pilot last month in Middlebury found that the plane's engine "skipped" and "sputtered" before going down.
Forty-two-year-old Paul Bessler was the only person aboard the propeller-driver aircraft when it went down approximately 300 feet from the departure end of the runway at Middlebury State Airport.
The Burlington Free Press reports federal investigators also reported that the wings of the single-engine Piper PA28 that crashed Dec. 23 had "wagged" during its initial climb after takeoff.
The NTSB's three-page preliminary report, made public earlier this week, failed to determine what caused the crash. A final report is pending.
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