Air traffic controllers told the pilot of a small plane that crashed near a Houston airport at least twice to turn around and make another attempt to land, according to audio communication.
Three people on the plane, which took off from Norman, Oklahoma, were killed Thursday afternoon when it crashed into a car in a parking lot.
According to audio on the website liveatc.net , air traffic controllers tell the female pilot she’s flying too high and has to turn around to land at Hobby Airport.
The pilot can be heard nervously laughing as she says, “Trying to get down again.” An air traffic controller says “no problem.”
Just before the crash, a traffic controller says: “Ma’am, ma’am, straighten up, straighten up.” The plane made a turn to the left and then took a nosedive into the parking lot, National Transportation Safety Board spokesman Peter Knudson said Thursday.
The flight-tracking website FlightAware showed that in the last 15 minutes of its flight, the plane’s altitude greatly fluctuated, going from 1,800 feet down to 200 feet and back up to 1,200 feet before crashing.
The names of the three victims have not been released.
Records in the Federal Aviation Administration registry show the plane was registered to Safe Aviation LLC in Moore, Oklahoma, and had been manufactured in 2012. Officials with Safe Aviation could not immediately be reached for comment, and a phone listing for the company could not be found.
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