NTSB investigating weight, balance and engine questions in Butler crash

The search for answers about what caused a fatal skydiving plane crash began Monday.Investigators from the National Transportation Safety Board arrived at the scene of the crash at Butler Memorial Airport on Monday and set up on Business Loop 49, also known as Orange Street.The road was closed to traffic.According to investigators, the plane took off at about 11:30 Sunday morning and crashed just after take-off.The eleven passengers and the pilot were all killed.Long-time pilot and trainer Robert Katz said there are several possible crash causes.But because there were 12 people on board the plane with their parachute gear, his best guess is focused on one area."What I think happened here in this case is that it was, if not a weight issue, a balance issue. If too much of that weight is forced into the tail of the airplane, then the airplane is going to be impossible to control on takeoff," he said."We will always look at weight balance on any aircraft accident and try to determine if it was inside the envelope," said NTSB Vice-chairman Michael Graham during a briefing Monday.A distraught man who came out to the site on Monday said he's been a skydiving student for three months, knew everyone on board the fatal crash, and jumped himself on Friday.Flight records show the same plane did five skydiving flights on Friday, two on Saturday, and two more flights on Sunday morning before the crash.Graham, in his briefing Monday, also addressed what his investigators will do based on eyewitness reports of plane engine failure."They'll be looking for videos and trying to actually interview those witnesses," he said."Engine failure is definitely a possibility," Katz said.Logs show the same plane had run 16 skydiving flights in June.Those logs show the flights typically last about 20 minutes, which is enough time for the pilot to get the skydivers to their jumping point and then return to the airport.In the case of the fatal crash, the flight didn't make it past the airport property.Graham said NTSB investigators plan to remove the wreckage from the crash site on Tuesday.He said they'll then move it to another location for further examination.Graham said an initial report will be released in 30 days.He said a final report including the crash cause is likely to take at least a year.