Initial report released on fatal Oxford plane crash

OXFORD - A witness heard a plane engine backfiring and saw the craft enter into a downward spiral before it crashed in rural Johnson County, killing Terry Koehn and James Spicer.

That's according to an aviation accident preliminary report released Friday by the National Transportation Safety Board, which is investigating the April 7 fatal crash near Oxford. The report does not state what caused the plane to crash, but does include information from a witness who said he was about a mile from the crash site.

Koehn and Spicer are not identified by name in the report and are only referred to as the certified flight instructor and a private pilot. Koehn was a flight instructor with the Green Castle Aero Club.

According to the report, Koehn and Spicer took off from the Green Castle Airport at about 2:45 p.m. on Friday, April 7. A flight plan was not filed for the flight. The crash occurred at approximately 3:07 p.m., according to the National Transportation Safety Board.

The witness, who is not identified in the report, said he heard 'an engine popping and backfiring.” The man told investigators the Piper PA-28-180 airplane registered to the Green Castle Aero Club appeared to be going in a south-southeast direction but 'it looked like it wasn't moving,” the report states.

Authorities said the nose of the airplane dropped and entered into a downward spiral in a clockwise manner. The witness told investigators he could no longer hear the engine running. The plane spiraled eight or nine times before it stopped and 'continued in a nose-down descent,” according to the report.

The man lost sight of the plane and then heard the impact of it hitting the ground.

The report states the certified flight instructor was operating the plane as part of a training flight, but does not state definitively who was flying the plane at the time of the crash. Keith Holloway, media specialist officer with the National Transportation Safety Board, said investigators will typically identify the pilot in a crash if that information is known.

'Other times, it's unclear who, in fact, was flying the aircraft at the time,” Holloway said.

Holloway said air traffic control information is typically analyzed to try to verify who was flying in a fatal crash, but he said sometimes investigators cannot identify who was piloting the plane.

The Johnson County Sheriff's Office previously said authorities responded to the crash site after a call was received by the Johnson County Joint Communications Center. Sgt. Brad Kunkel said the plane was on fire when authorities arrived to the scene at 2383 IWV Road SW.

Spicer, 53, of Cedar Rapids, was employed by ITC Midwest as the manager for project engineering. Koehn, 70, of rural Iowa City, was a retired Coralville Police Department lieutenant. Their funerals took place Wednesday.

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