Plane wreckage removed from crash site, investigation continues (PHOTOS)

DEMOPOLIS, Ala. — The National Transportation Safety Board removed the wreckage of the Fred Teutenberg’s twin-engine Cessna from the crash site Tuesday.

The wreckage was found Sunday morning within two miles of the Demopolis Airport.

Remnants of the plane were sent to a recovery center in Atlanta, where the investigation will continue, said Nicholas Worrell, a spokesman for NTSB.

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Worrell also said that investigators at the site were impeded by thunderstorms but had completed the ground investigation.

Holly Baker, a spokeswoman for the Federal Aviation Administration said Sunday that Teutenberg had reported losing his right engine shortly before the plane crash.

The NTSB has not yet confirmed that engine failure caused of the accident or that either engine had given out.

Fred and Terresa Teutenberg of Niceville and their five children were killed in the crash while on their way home from vacationing in St. Louis.

Morengo County Coroner Stuart Harold Eatmon spoke to Teutenberg’s father after the crash. Fred Sr. said he had been on his son to buy a newer plane if he was going to fly with his entire family, Eatmon said.

“He told his dad the plane had two new engines,” Eatmon added.

In one night, the number of plane crash fatalities connected to the Emerald Coast caught up to the total from 2010, when seven people were killed in three crashes.

Two of the private planes crashed in the Gulf of Mexico and the third went down in Choctawhatchee Bay.

Among those lost was Niceville businessman Tim McDonald, who died July 2 on the eve of his daughter’s wedding when his T-6 Texan crashed in the gulf off the Okaloosa-Walton County line. His brother-in-law, Tim Turner of Omaha, Neb., also was killed in the wreck. 

The first accident was March 6, when a plane piloted by a Birmingham, Ala., doctor plunged into the gulf while he was flying in formation with other World War II-era aircraft.   Herbert Evan Zeiger Jr. was piloting a North American T-6 with his wife, Margaret Shook Zeiger, onboard

The third crash occurred Nov. 23 when three people in a Piper Malibu died when it went crashed in the bay near Destin.   Gregory Scott Coleman, 47, was piloting the plane. His mother-in-law, 63-year-old Charlene Black Miller, and Miller’s brother, 58-year-old James Patrick Black were passengers.

The Texas residents were flying into Destin Airport about 7:40 p.m. for the Thanksgiving holiday when Coleman’s plane dropped off Eglin Air Force Base’s radar.

Ray Watson, a pilot who had flown with Teutenberg, said the number of planes taking off and landing at Destin Airport accounts for the relatively high number of crashes.

“It’s not that they are doing something wrong,” Watson said. “It’s just the volume of traffic is gonna inherently see more problems.”

Watson compared it to cities having more car wrecks than rural communities.

Teutenberg’s plane was no ordinary Cessna. He had spent a fortune fixing it up and took meticulous care of the aircraft.

“The airplane was probably one of the best equipped airplanes of its type,” Watson said. “When he bought that airplane, he completely redid it. He put an avionics package in there that is just not seen in that type of airplane because of the cost. But he spent the money and did it right.”

The NTSB investigation will include a look at Teutenberg’s flight record and records from the fatal flight.

According to an unofficial flight-track log posted on FlightAware.com, the plane began losing altitude at 5:25 p.m. It was traveling 227 mph.

By 5:26 p.m., the aircraft had dropped more than 1,000 feet and was traveling 237 mph.

The last recorded entry was at 5:27 p.m. The Cessna was traveling at 269 mph and the listed altitude had fallen another 1,800 feet.

In a telephone interview with the Daily News Tuesday, Terresa’s father, John Barranco, said considering the speed of the plane and where it went down, he was confident that Fred Teutenberg could have reached the Demopolis Airport if he had a little more time.

“They were just 60 seconds away,” Barranco said. “One more minute would have saved them.”