The NTSB released its preliminary report on the Blairstown accident.
There was no warning.
When Samuel Singer started his plane on Nov. 10, it immediately went to full power, taxied at high speed across the Blairstown Airport runway and into a tree, fatally injuring the 73-year-old from Somerset County.
The National Transportation Safety Board on Wednesday released its preliminary report on the accident, which says that no mechanical issues were noticed ahead of time.
Singer -- a grandfather and retired financial executive for a successful laboratory testing company -- owned the plane, a North American Navion fixed-wing, single-engine craft manufactured in 1947. The day of the crash was his first time flying it since a gears-up landing at the Warren County airport last December, the NTSB says in the report.
Pilot was family man who loved to fly
The aircraft remained at Blairstown for repairs and was due to be flown to Capital City Airport in Harrisburg for its annual inspection the day before the crash, the NTSB reports. A different pilot was to fly it, but the flight was postponed a day due to weather. Singer chose to fly the plane himself the next day.
The report also says that the mechanic -- who had never experienced any problems with the throttle or brakes -- taxied the plane to the fuel pumps and performed engine tests without issue.
The plane wreckage was retained for further examination, the report says.
According to records and the report, Singer got his piloting license in 2011 and had logged 1,445 hours of flight experience as of January. The report does not indicate if there may have been a medical issue may have played a role in the crash, as Singer's former colleague and fellow pilot had wondered.
"As a pilot, the first thing you think of is if the plane suddenly went full throttle, what would you do? ... I would assume Sam would have the same mental checklist," Rich Faherty, executive vice president of administration at BioReference Laboratories, previously told lehighvalleylive.com. "The fact that Sam didn't stop the plane before it struck the trees makes me believe that something else prevented him from going through the mental checklist."
Steve Novak may be reached at snovak@njadvancemedia.com. Follow him on Twitter @type2supernovak and Facebook. Find lehighvalleylive.com on Facebook.