Report: Engine dead before Wal-Mart crash

MANCHESTER, N.H. – The pilot of a cargo plane that crashed into a Manchester Wal-Mart told investigators that one of the plane’s propellers cut out moments before the aircraft went down.

Pilot Paul Seyler-Schmidt of Portland, Maine, heard an explosion shortly after taking off from Manchester Airport on Nov. 8, according to a preliminary report by National Transportation Safety Board.

Checking his instruments, Seyler-Schmidt noticed all gauges for the left engine had dropped to zero. Looking to the left engine, he saw the propeller had stopped completely.

The plane didn’t make it back to the runway. It clipped a nearby Wal-Mart garden center and crashed into a storage container before bursting into flames. Seyler-Schmidt escaped and was hospitalized for eight days.