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Crashed jet reported issue after leaving Watertown

SIOUX FALLS, S.D. (KELO) — A jet that had left Watertown and crashed near Granite Falls, Minnesota, had reported an engine failure during the flight, a preliminary crash report from the National Transportation Safety Board (NTSB) said.

The July 21 crash killed pilot David Colin Dacus, 49, of San Francisco, California and injured instructing pilot Mark Ryan Ruff, 43, of Dallas, Texas, according to the Yellow Medicine County (Minnesota) Sheriff’s Office.

The NTSB will continue to investigate and will issue a final report.

Ruff was instructing Dacus on the Aero Vodochody L-39 jet in a flight from Wyoming to Osk Kosh, Wisconsin, the NTSB report said. On the third leg of the flight that left from Watertown, Ruff reported engine trouble and determined the jet could not land at the Granite Falls airport. He told Dacus three times to eject, but there was no ejection according to the NTSB report. Ruff was able to eject. Emergency personnel found Dacus in the seat with the unused ejection firing mechanism.

The two flights from a site in Wyoming to Gillette, Wyoming, and then from Gillette to Watertown “were uneventful,” the NTSB report said.

After the flight left Watertown, the instructor pilot said both pilots smelled smoke in their helmets and saw smoke in the cockpit. “4-5 seconds later the aircraft shook briefly in conjunction with an audible metal- to-metal grinding noise,” the NTSB report said.

The instructor pilot first expected to land at the airport in Granite Falls but decided to head to the airport in nearby Marshall, Minnesota. While flying to Marshall, the instructor pilot determined the jet would not reach that aiport so Granite Falls became the destination, the NTSB report said.

The jet was approaching a power line when the instructor pilot Ruff told the training pilot Dacus to eject for a third time. The instructor pilot was able to eject.

The jet crashed around 5:30 p.m., according to the Federal Aviation Administration. The NTSB report said Ruff had originally filed a plan to fly to Fond du Lac, Wisconsin, but had decided to fly into Osk Kosh. Ruff was going to cancel the instrument flight to Fond du Lac to visually fly to Osk Kosh.

Industry websites describe the Aero Vodochody L-39 as a versatile jet trainer. Watertown is about 85 miles from Granite Falls. Granite Falls is on U.S. Highway 212 and Minnesota Highway 23. The municipal airport is about four miles south of the city.

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