NTSB: Amateur-built airplane began to break up before crash

NTSB releases preliminary report on northwest Arizona plane crash

Federal authorities say 73-year-old Richard Moynihan was flying an experimental small plane when it started breaking apart mid-air and crashed near Kingman.

KINGMAN, Ariz. - A Nevada man's experimental small plane crashed in northwestern Arizona after breaking up in midair, according to a National Transportation Safety Board preliminary report released on March 17.

Mohave County Sheriff’s officials said previously that the pilot, 73-year-old Richard Dennis Moynihan of Boulder City, was the only person aboard the single-engine plane when it crashed Feb. 19 near Triangle Airpark about 45 miles (72 kilometers) northwest of Kingman.

According to the NTSB preliminary report, the amateur-built Vans RV-7A had "an in-flight breakup" while making a "rapid descending turn" and then spiraled nose-down into the ground,

"Several pieces of aircraft structure were seen falling from the airplane as it descended to the ground," the preliminary report said.

The crash destroyed the plane and left debris scattered near U.S. 93, the sheriff's office said.