Witnesses say plane in Orcutt crash descended like a corkscrew

ORCUTT, Calif. - The National Transportation Safety Board released its Preliminary Report into the May 20, 2020 crash of a private plane into the playground at Ralph Dunlap Elementary School in Orcutt.

The student pilot, Tigran Garabedyan, 38, Burbank died in the crash. He was the only person on board the plane. The NewsChannel discovered his student pilot certification issued six months ago prohibited Garabedyan from carrying any passengers.

The NTSB Preliminary Report indicates Garabedyan was on a solo cross country flight when his plane crashed. His flight instructor reported to NTSB investigators that Garabedyan had been in flight training since September, 2019 and had accumulated 50 flight hours. Garabedyan's final flight was his third solo flight and second cross country flight. The instructor also reported that Garabedyan's flight path is the same one they had flown together at least twice before and that Garabedyan had flown that same route once on his own about a week before the crash.

Garabedyan was flying a Cirrus SR20 airplane which The NewsChannel discovered is a highly advanced private airplane. It comes equipped from the factory with a built-in Cirrus Airframe Parachute System (CAPS) which is designed to deploy during an emergency and avoid a fatal crash. The parachute is manually released by the pilot and must be deployed within the certified speed and altitude parameters.

Evidence at the crash site and video recorded just moments before the crash seem to indicate that Garabedyan tried to deploy the parachute but possibly too late.

The NTSB report describes what witnesses saw as Garabedyan struggled to keep the Cirrus in the air. One witness told investigators the plane was flying lower than normal. According to the report, "He observed the airplane oscillate, followed by an engine power increased and then the airplane straightened out. Shortly thereafter, the power decreased, and it started to oscillate as it went out of view."

Another witness saw the wings perpendicular to the ground. A third witness reported hearing a loud hissing sound which sounded like a large bottle rocket, "He looked up and saw the airplane abruptly turn left and descend like a corkscrew," according to the report.

The NewsChannel checked FAA records which indicate the Cirrus SR20 plane Garabedyan was flying is registered to a company called West by Southwest Investments, LLC in Newport Beach.

The NTSB says the wreckage of the airplane has been taken to a secure location for further examination. NTSB investigators did not travel to the crash site.