FAA Says Pilot Error Caused Local Fatal Plane Crash

TERRE HAUTE, Ind. — Federal investigators say pilot error caused a small plane to crash into a home in 2016 near a western Indiana airport, fatally injuring one person and badly injuring another.

The National Transportation Safety Board released a report Wednesday on the crash. The single-engine Cessna clipped the top of a 50-foot-tall tree before hitting the house Aug. 25, 2016, near Sky King Airport north of Terre Haute.

Sixty-year-old John Trump, of Lexington, Kentucky, was piloting the plane and died several days later, while 63-year-old Patrick O’Neill survived. Both were doctors at Terre Haute Regional Hospital.

The NTSB says both men were pilots and flew the plane. O’Neill owned the plane and Trump was a potential buyer.