The US National Transportation Safety Board (NTSB) confirms that it is investigating a fatal accident to an EADS Socata TBM 700 single-engined turboprop that crashed on 2 March on approach to Virginia Leesburg Executive Airport. The weather was "foggy", according to the NTSB, and the aircraft came down "about a mile [1.6km] short" of the runway killing both pilots and the passenger.
Pilot in command of the single-engined aircraft was Donald Fitzpatrick, president of High Performance Technologies, to which company the aircraft (N600P) was registered. It had taken off from Greer, South Carolina, on an instrument flight rules flight plan about 2h before. The weather at Leesburg was reported as 1.6km visibility overcast at 300ft with light wind. The NTSB has not established what approach aids the aircraft was using, but says it has begun a full accident investigation.
Source: Flight International
