NTSB releases preliminary report on fatal Greenwood plane crash

INDIANAPOLIS (WISH) — A report filed this week by the National Transportation Safety Board provides some new details on a July plane crash that killed the pilot, a 44-year-old Purdue University graduate.

Anh-Thu Nguyen died July 30 when the small plane she was piloting crashed behind a gas station just 90 seconds after takeoff from Indy South Greenwood Airport. Nguyen was the only person on board.

The NTSB report does not list a specific cause of the crash, but it does offer some new insight on what happened in the moments leading up to it.

According to the NTSB, Nguyen’s fixed-wing, single-engine Lancair IVP, took off at 10:45 a.m. from runway 19. The destination was the airport at Quakertown, Pennsylvania, a borough roughly 45 miles north of Philadelphia.

After takeoff, the plane began a climbing left turn. The turn continued for about 30 seconds, the NTSB says, before the turn radius decreased while continuing to the left.

The data then showed a “rapid descent to the right” before the plane went down behind the Circle K gas station on Main Street in Greenwood, about 3 miles south of the airport.

Under a heading labeled “engine parameters,” the report states, “all engine readings were steady from power application during the takeoff until the end of the recorded data.”

911 recordings shared with News 8 captured the call made by nearby air traffic operations. Several other pilots told air traffic control they spotted Nguyen’s plane suddenly stall and spin out. Another 911 caller said Nguyen’s plane “dropped straight out of the sky.”

The NTSB will release a final report when the crash investigation is complete.

Flying Solo

A pilot and flight instructor, Anh-Thu Nguyen dedicated her life to sharing her love of flying and aerospace engineering with women of Asian heritage.

Growing up up in Vietnam, Nguyen told Purdue’s “Aerogram” magazine, she was fascinated by the planes that flew above her remote village.

“I longed to have that experience of flying and controlling a plane, of feeling small and vulnerable yet at the same time so powerful.”

At age 12, she immigrated to the U.S. with her family, a move that eventually led her to Purdue, where she studied mathematics and engineering.

She began flying at 18 and earned her private pilot certificate while working at Boeing, eventually becoming a First Officer on the Boeing 767.

In 2018, Nguyen founded Asian Women in Aerospace & Aviation, an organization “dedicated to encouraging, empowering, and engaging the next generation of Asian female pilots, aerospace engineers, and STEM professionals.”

“As an Asian woman, I faced many obstacles and challenges to get where I am today, especially adapting to a new culture, language, and life in the United States,” Nguyen told Purdue in 2024. “I wanted to give back and inspire the next generation.”

In 2020, she founded of Dragon Training Academy at North Perry Airport in Pembroke Pines, Florida, where she worked as a flight instructor.

“I love being a flight instructor because I’m able to share my knowledge while at the same time learning more about aviation myself,” Nguyen told Purdue.

In 2024, Purdue says, she was set to become the 10th woman to fly solo around the world.

An obituary published by her organization describes Nguyen as a “dear friend, mentor, and leader.”

We are heartbroken by the sudden loss of our dear friend, founder, mentor, and leader, Anh-Thu Nguyen, who passed away in a tragic accident during her solo journey around the world.

Anh-Thu was an inspiring pilot, instructor, and advocate for girls and women in aerospace, engineering, and aviation. She lived with boldness, curiosity, and drive. She came from humble beginnings in Vietnam to becoming a beacon of hope to many.

We hold her family, friends, and community dearly in our hearts at this time. May she fly high in the blue skies.

“She lived urgency. She lived persistence,” her obituary reads. “‘Impossible’ was never part of her vocabulary. Her favorite motto, from Amelia Earhart, was: ‘The most effective way to do it is to do it.’”

Nguyen is survived by her husband, Raphael Schütz, her parents, her siblings, and nephews and several nieces.

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