Local

Cause of plane crash under investigation

YULEE, Fla. — Evan Mirschel and Frank Sanderson gave Action News a ride down the shallow and winding Lofton Creek to the site of Monday's deadly plane crash. 

The yellow and white Swift 125 was intact for the most part, laying on its belly in the tall grass of the marsh.

Investigators say the single-engine plane went down about 500 yards from the grass runway at the Flying A Ranch. The site is only accessible by boat.  And by the time the first responders could get there, the 65-year-old pilot, Charlie Yeagle, was dead.

"He was a good man. Been flying planes forever," said neighbor Frankie Hayes.  "He must have just lost power or something."

The National Transportation Safety Board is trying to determine if that could be what caused Yeagle to crash moments after takeoff.

Yeagle was a former commercial airline pilot and flight instructor.  He had decades of experience.