NTSB releases prelim report on April plane crash ruled suicide

A coroner has ruled the death of 20-year-old Purdue student Alexander Foss in last month's plane crash a suicide.

Meanwhile, the National Transportation Safety Board has released an Aviation Investigation Preliminary Report regarding the crash.

The April 12 crash destroyed a Piper PA-28-161 aircraft and killed Foss, a Purdue junior in professional flight from Minnesota. The plane was owned by Purdue Aviation, a private company.

According to Automatic Dependent Surveillance-Broadcast data, the airplane departed the Purdue University Airport about 7:40 p.m. for a night flight.

The preliminary report says Foss conducted four traffic pattern landings before Foss climbed to about 4,000 feet above sea level heading northwest.

About 10 miles away from the airport, data shows the plane making a series of turns before ADS-B data was lost about 2 p.m.

The wreckage was found by local law enforcement officials between Otterbein and Montmorenci, Indiana, the next day about 8:21 p.m.

No flight plan or destination was filed. Officials have not yet explained how Foss gained access to the craft or why it took 18 hours to report it was missing.

The wreckage was retained for further examination, the NTSB report said.

Andrew Finne, an air safety investigator at the NTSB, is in charge of the Class 3 investigation, the goal of which is to identify safety issues that reveal underlying causes of the accident.

The NTSB did not travel to the scene of the accident to investigate.

Foss died of multiple blunt force injuries as a result of the crash, Tippecanoe County's coroner said in a news release Wednesday.