Pilot error cited in North Dakota plane crash that killed 3

BISMARCK, N.D. – Pilot error most likely caused the 2018 crash of a medical plane in North Dakota that killed all three people on board, federal investigators said.

The National Transportation Safety Board’s final report attributed the Bismarck Air Medical crash in Morton County to “the pilot’s failure to maintain control of the airplane in dark night conditions.” It said that resulted in “an in-flight positive overload failure of the wings and the subsequent in-flight breakup of the airplane,” the Bismarck Tribune reported.

Bismarck Air Medical pilot Todd Lasky, Metro Area Ambulance paramedic Chris Iverson and CHI St. Alexius Health nurse Bonnie Cook died in the crash.

They were headed from Bismarck to Williston to pick up a patient when the Cessna 441 “broke up in-flight,” according to the NTSB preliminary report. The plane was destroyed.

The plane had climbed to 14,000 feet (4,267 metres) before it entered a right descending turn and fell 7,800 feet (2,377 metres) in about 40 seconds the night of Nov. 18, 2018. Debris landed in a snow-covered field northwest of Harmon Lake.