A small plane identified in flight-tracking data as a Cirrus SR22 crashed at Brumley, Missouri, on the Lake of the Ozarks at about 2:15 p.m. on Nov. 3, killing a 51-year-old woman and a 52-year-old man. Both victims lived in Simpsonville, Kentucky. The National Transportation Safety Board said it would send investigators to the scene the following day.
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The Miller County Coroner’s office said next of kin had been notified, and the two people were not named in any coverage available on Nov. 5. The Federal Aviation Administration and the Missouri State Highway Patrol were the agencies that reported the crash. No tail number, destination or cause had been made public.
A 2:09 p.m. departure from Lee C. Fine Memorial Airport
According to ABC 17 News, the crash happened near Lee C. Fine Memorial Airport, the field the aircraft left. FlightAware data cited in that report shows the SR22 departing at 2:09 p.m. and flying for about 15 minutes, although the crash itself was placed at 2:15 p.m. Those two times do not line up cleanly, and the destination was not stated. Flight-track data of exactly this kind is among the first material federal investigators collect, so the timeline is likely to be settled in the agency record rather than in early news accounts.
On the ground, the Missouri Department of Natural Resources announced a partial closure of the park beside the crash site. A ranger was stationed at the Hidden Springs Trail entrance, and caution tape and police tape blocked areas near the trail and the Trail of 4 Winds. The report described closures only; it did not say where in the park the wreckage came to rest.
Pilot, aircraft and operating environment under NTSB review
NTSB spokesperson Jennifer Gabris told ABC 17 News by email that investigators “are expected to arrive at about 1 or 2 p.m.” on Wednesday, Nov. 4. The agency said its work will cover three areas: the pilot, the aircraft and the operating environment. Investigators plan to review flight track data, surveillance video and air traffic control communications, along with a 72-hour background check on the pilot and the pilot’s license. The NTSB’s published description of its process says fact gathering happens both at the scene and away from it, through flight logs, maintenance records and interviews.
The same page says the Board can name outside organizations or companies as parties to an investigation, which lets it draw on their expertise. Whether any parties have been designated in this case was not reported.
Preliminary report in 30 days, final report in 12 to 24 months
A preliminary report is expected within 30 days of the crash, ABC 17 reported, and a final report could take 12 to 24 months. The NTSB’s process page gives the same 12-to-24-month goal for finishing an investigation, with the caveat that complexity and workload can change it considerably. A preliminary report generally records the facts gathered so far, such as the flight’s history, weather and wreckage observations, and stops short of a finding on probable cause. That finding arrives with the final report, which either the modal office director approves under delegated authority or the Board adopts at a public meeting.
A third fatal crash near the lake since 2020
ABC 17 described the Nov. 3 crash as the third plane crash near the Lake of the Ozarks since 2020. The earlier two came in August 2020 and July 2023, both in Osage Beach, and each killed two people.
The July 2023 case shows how long the process runs. A plane had just taken off from Grand Glaize Airport on July 13, 2023, when it crashed, killing 22-year-old Hayden M. Ritchhart and 19-year-old Evan R. Vandiver and seriously injuring Gary Vandiver, 54. First Alert 4 reported on Nov. 26, 2024, about 16 months after the crash, that the NTSB’s final report attributed it to pilot error.
The SR22 is a four-seat, single-engine airplane built by Cirrus Aircraft of Duluth, Minnesota. According to its reference entry, it was certified in November 2000, is powered by a 310-horsepower Continental IO-550-N engine and carries the Cirrus Airframe Parachute System, a whole-airplane parachute; deliveries reached 8,246 units from 2001 to 2024. ABC 17’s account does not say whether the parachute was deployed, and the aircraft was identified as an SR22 only through FlightAware data, so the exact variant remains unconfirmed.
The same reference entry puts the type’s record in context: from 2001 to May 2014, 147 U.S.-registered SR22s crashed and 122 people died, and a 2011 review found the overall accident record better than average for light aircraft while its fatal accident rate ran higher than the general aviation rate for the U.S. as a whole. Those are fleet-wide statistics from years ago and say nothing about this flight.
What caused the crash is the open question, and none of the sources available on Nov. 5 offers an answer. The NTSB’s preliminary report, due within 30 days of the Nov. 3 crash, will be the first official account of the aircraft’s path and the wreckage, and the agency told ABC 17 that its team would examine the pilot’s license and 72-hour history along the way.
This article was produced with the assistance of AI and reviewed by Morning Overview editors prior to publication.
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