NTSB says

Washington (WCAX) – According to the NTSB, the poor decision -making led to the plane crash, in which a Baltimore man and his two children were almost killed on a mountain in Vermont in February.

The Murphy family left Baltimore on the morning of February 26 in their one-engine Piper Pa-28 and drives to Killington via the regional port of Rutland. After John Murphy tried to fly low to avoid clouds, he said to WCAX, he started to do the icing, which led to the aircraft stood several times before the crash near the 3,800 foot summit from Mount Equinox in Manchester.

Rescue workers were calculated by Vermont and New York hours to save the family. Murphy and his two children only suffered minor injuries. They later said Wcax that they were grateful to be alive.

Murphy was not only assessed using instruments with poor visual conditions. In his final report, the NTSB states that the crash was caused by Murphys improper decision to continue with “visual flight rules” in low visibility conditions that required the use of instruments. They came to the conclusion that the icing on the cake and the loss of the flight speed brought the plane to a standstill, which forced Murphy to overthrow land on the mountain.

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