FOUNTAIN — Federal investigators were at the scene of a deadly small plane crash in northern Bay County searching for clues that might help them determine what caused the Sunday morning crash.
Bay County Sheriff’s deputies were called Sunday around 9:25 a.m. to the scene of a plane crash in a wooded area near Longleaf Road at the edge of Bay County. Investigators said the plane just departed from Maran Airfield, a small grass airstrip, before it crashed.
Pilot Patrick Shultz, his mother Kathleen Shultz, his aunt Nancy Moore and his 14-year-old nephew Nicholas Hoang were onboard. The plane, a 1974 Piper Cherokee AP 28, burned after crashing. Only Patrick Shultz survived, and he was taken to the hospital in critical condition. He remained in critical condition Monday after being transferred to a Georgia hospital that specializes in treatment of severe burns, BCSO spokeswoman Ruth Corley said.
National Transportation Safety Board spokesman Nicholas Worrell said the investigator at the scene was just beginning an investigation that would likely take between six months and a year. The investigator was documenting the scene and interviewing witnesses Monday, but it will likely be a few more days before the wreckage is even removed, Worrell said.
“It’s too early to find out even the cause,” Worrell said Monday.
The NTSB will typically issue a report of preliminary findings within about a month of crash, Worrell said.
First responders from Bay, Calhoun and Jackson Counties dealt with difficult terrain and wildfire from the explosion to reach the scene Sunday morning.