Plane Crash: Preliminary NTSB Report On Crash That Killed Pleasanton Man

Investigators have released preliminary information about a fatal plane crash earlier this month outside of Livermore, National Transportation Safety Board officials said.

Pleasanton resident Michael Seal, 75, died after the plane he was piloting crashed at about 9 p.m. in a field at the end of Hartford Avenue off North Livermore Avenue in unincorporated Alameda County.

Related:

• Livermore Plane Crash Victim Identified
• UPDATE: Deadly Plane Crash in Livermore

The NTSB report says Seal “made a downwind departure. Shortly after takeoff, he reported a control difficulty to air traffic control tower personnel; he stated that he was going to make a circle, and troubleshoot the issue. There were no further transmissions.”

The report says a “witness about one-half mile away” heard the engine cut out. The witness couldn’t initially see the plane because dusk had set, according to the report. The witness heard the engine revving, sputter twice and rev again, the report says. Two lights of the plane came into the witness’s view and the witness saw the plane nosedive, not spinning, but the engine sounded as if “it was at full throttle,” the report says.

Investigators from the NTSB and Federal Aviation Administration examined the crash site and said in the report that the “propeller blade had separated about 6 inches from the hub along an angular plane. “The rest of the propeller was in the” crater created in the crash and “was not charred.”

--Bay City News