HARRISON COUNTY (KYTX) -- The NTSB is investigating a deadly plane crash in northeastern Harrison County. DPS troopers have identified the pilot killed as 52-year old Jerome Thomas Jaquin. CBS 19's Abby Broyles spoke with the NTSB today and join us where the crash happened off Peters Chapel Road and FM1793 with the latest tonight.
Investigators tell us it's like trying to find a needle in a haystack, trying to find all the pieces of the plane out here. You can see where the plane went down behind me, about 400 yards off the road. NTSB investigators are trying to find the parts of the plane today and what caused it to go down Saturday morning.
DPS troopers found the plane early Saturday morning, its tail end and part of a wing missing. Those with the Shreveport civil air patrol say the plane crashed before 5:00am.
A Harrison County justice of the peace pronounced the pilot dead at the scene. He's been identified as 52-year old Jerome Thomas Jaquin of Mexico.
Aaron Sauer, with the NTSB, has been investigating the crash since Sunday.
"We have accounted for all the major components on the aircraft and now we're in the recovery phase, that is, the aircraft if being recovered by a specialty group out of Dallas. They'll be bringing the aircraft to a secure location in Dallas," Sauer said.
The NTSB says the plane took off from Illinois and was on it way to Mexico, first stopping in Brownsville, Texas.
It was storming Saturday morning, but investigators aren't saying yet if inclement weather caused the crash.
"We investigate man, machine and environment, the man being the pilot, his experience, his training, his history... machine being the aircraft, the maintenance that's done," Sauer said.
Jaquin's body is now in Tyler for an autopsy, while the NTSB continues its investigation.
NTSB investigators tell me they hope to have the plane removed tonight, and at this point they say the cause of the crash is still under investigation.
The NTSB tells us the airplane was registered to company in Illinois and was recently converted for skydiving operations.
Investigators say they'll release a preliminary crash report in the next few weeks.
