The NTSB’s findings into Monday’s Colonie plane crash will be valuable to the local aviation community.

The NTSB investigation could take up to two years.

Its findings will be a focus for local pilots like Dave Prescott, Owner of the Prescott Foundation. He has logged decades of experience flying, including on the same Piper PA-21 Navajo plane that crashed.

He analyzed the map of the pilot’s flight. He said pilots have benchmarks for speed and altitude that they know they should be meeting during takeoff. In his opinion, the flight appeared to miss those benchmarks right away during Monday’s flight, before it crashed in Colonie minutes after takeoff.

“I’m normally a thousand feet or higher at a lot of those position points than she was at those times,” Prescott said. “I’m going to be looking for the NTSB’s feedback on what might have occurred or what might have caused her to not be climbing already in the flight.”

The NTSB is taking the plane to a secure facility in Massachusetts. There, the agency will look at video footage, impact scars and whether the engines had power. 

Right now, its findings validate what Prescott saw from the flight path. 

“This type of flight path is typical of an extreme loss of control situation,” said Lynn Spencer, Air Safety Investigator for the NTSB.