WASHINGTON COUNTY, Ark. (WLBT) – The final NTSB report was released for the plane crash that killed a former Mississippi senator in 2023.
On May 13, 2023, an airplane crashed in Washington County, Arkansas, after it departed from Oxford, Mississippi, earlier in the day, according to the FAA.
The pilot did not survive.
The Washington County Sheriff’s Office confirmed that the pilot was John Morgan, 76, of Oxford, Mississippi.
Morgan served as a Mississippi state senator from 1984-92.
The wreckage of a missing twin-engine Beech King Air E-90 was located at 3:46 p.m. in the southern portion of the county after it was reported that the plane lost altitude and crashed.
The National Transportation Safety Board (NTSB) confirmed that Morgan was the only person on the plane, and he suffered fatal injuries.
Over two years later, the NTSB has released its final report for the incident.
According to the NTSB report, the airplane was being flown to another airport for maintenance work on the autopilot system.
Before the flight, Morgan and an avionics technician discussed a roll issue with the airplane’s autopilot, and Morgan was advised not to use the autopilot until the issue was resolved.
The avionics technician further advised Morgan to wait for good weather to make the flight, but he reportedly had a function back home that he wanted to attend later, on the day of the accident.
Recorded flight track data indicated that most of the flight was uneventful until the airplane began its descent toward the intended destination.
During the descent, the airplane encountered overcast clouds that continued to the end of the flight.
Morgan was subsequently cleared for an instrument approach to the destination airport. While maneuvering on the approach, the airplane descended below its assigned altitude, and the controller issued a low-altitude alert to Morgan.
The airplane briefly climbed before it entered a descending right turn that continued to the end of the recorded data. Calculations based on recorded flight data revealed the airplane was descending over 15,000 feet per minute shortly before impact.
The airplane impacted the ground near the final recorded flight track data point, in a near-vertical attitude, and was fragmented.
Examination of the airplane, engines, and systems did not reveal any pre-impact anomalies that would have precluded normal flight.
Based on the available information, Morgan was likely not using the autopilot due to the known issue with the system and, as a result, was hand-flying the airplane during the instrument approach. He was likely accustomed to flying the airplane with the automation that the autopilot provided rather than by hand in single-pilot instrument meteorological conditions.
Based on the recorded flight path, it is likely that Morgan became spatially disoriented and lost control of the airplane while intercepting the final approach course for the instrument approach.
In addition, Morgan allowed his self-imposed pressure to influence his decision to complete the flight in less-than-ideal weather conditions without a functional autopilot.
The Full NTSB report can be read below:
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