Radio calls reveal moments before deadly plane crash in St. Augustine

ST. AUGUSTINE, Fla. — We’re learning more about a pilot who lost her life in a tragic crash at the Northeast Florida Regional Airport.

Loved ones identified her as Marianne Fox, a 49-year-old Oregon native who had been completing a cross-country trip from her home state when she issued a distress call.

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Action News Jax learned she was flying in a high-performance aerobatic plane. Radio calls from the airport tower reveal what was said before and after she crashed.

“I am declaring an emergency,” Fox said on the radio.

Fox’s loved one Jim Bourke described her as an adventurous, charming, intelligent, and caring person in a public Facebook post. He said, “her success in everything she did inspired us.”

Officials have said her aircraft crashed just before 5p.m Wednesday night. Her flight tracker shows she left Keystone Heights at 4:45 p.m. but as she got toward St. Augustine, her speed and altitude dropped, crashing just after 5 p.m.

The radio that picked up the call from her and her flight partner reveals that she may have been experiencing engine trouble.

“My flight partner is having engine trouble. The engine is not running well, she’s showing smoke and she’s making a beeline for the airport right now,” her flight partner said over the radio.

The calls also reveal that the plane appeared to be flipped over and she was trapped in the cockpit.

“It looked like she tried to put it down and it kind of flipped over. We couldn’t tell,” was said on the radio.

Until the moment she crashed, the airport tower let her know over the radio that help was on the way for at least 20 minutes.

“You had a crosswind so the wind wasn’t helping you out. We know you did the best you can, we’re going to get the emergency folks out there, we’re going to get the airboat out there and get to you in a couple of minutes,” someone said over the radio to Fox.

“Alright airport people, that woman needs help out there she’s trapped in the cockpit. She needs help,” someone said over the radio.

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St. Johns County Fire Rescue says its response time was six minutes. Crews had to use an airboat and it took about four minutes to get Fox out of the plane. Action News Jax learned the average response time is generally between four and six minutes.

Fire Rescue said several factors made this rescue difficult.

Action News Jax news also covered two other crashes at this airport in the last year. We asked the airport if any safety changes have been made in the past five years and if anything could be changed moving forward after this recent deadly crash. A spokesperson said they would not be able to answer our questions.

Experts and pilots like Randy Reep say NTSB’s investigation will look into everything that happened — from days prior to her flight until the very end.

“The investigation has to come to completion,” he said. “Investigators are trained not to bite off on any red herrings along the way you’re going to want to go from beginning to end.”

Air Traffic Control guided Fox and cleared her to land, but officials said she crashed just off the runway, roughly 600 yards away.

“Alright Marianne, just stay calm they’re on their way, just stay with me,” Air Traffic Control said over the radio.

In Bourke’s post, he said everything she touched was made better.

NTSB says a preliminary report should be out within the next few weeks, adding on Friday they had recovered the plane involved in this deadly crash.

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