CALLAWAY — “Inadequate preflight and inflight fuel planning” have been cited as the cause of a plane crash near the Sandy Creek Airpark that killed an Okaloosa County businessman.
Eli Caison, co-director of Grey Aviation Advisors and Solutions in Shalimar, was killed Dec. 18, 2013, when his plane went down en route from his home in Palm Beach Gardens to Destin Airport.
A National Transportation Safety Board brief published Wednesday found that Caison’s failure to properly gauge the fuel required to reach his destination “resulted in a total loss of engine power due to fuel exhaustion.”
--- DOCUMENTS: THE NTSB REPORT»»
It also noted Caison was not wearing a shoulder harness when the plane went down, a factor “contributing to the pilot’s injuries.”
The cause of death was listed in the report as “blunt force head trauma.”
Caison, 52, took off from a South Florida airport about 6 a.m. the day of the crash to spend Christmas with his family in Okaloosa County. He was scheduled to land in Destin shortly before 8 a.m.
The NTSB investigation determined he was about 60 miles from Destin Airport when he reported “a total loss of engine power.”
Caison, an experienced pilot qualified to fly single-engine and multi-engine aircraft, attempted an emergency landing at Sandy Creek Airpark in the Allanton area but went down in a heavily wooded swamp about a mile east of there, the report said.
Investigators recovered about 2.5 gallons of fuel in the Beechcraft Bonanza G36, less than the six gallons the plane’s manufacturer considers “unusable.”
“The total fuel onboard … could not be determined,” the report said.
The plane was capable of holding 444 pounds of gasoline, according to the manufacturer. It had been “last serviced with fuel” 28 days before the fatal accident, according to the report.
--- DOCUMENTS: THE NTSB REPORT»»
Caison was a retired Air Force officer who had received a first-class medical designation in March 2013. That allowed him to be certified as a transport plane pilot.
He and partner Kevin Camilli opened Grey Aviation Advisors & Solutions in Shalimar in 2007.
They also were partners in Grey Aviation, a business using former special operations pilots. The company’s work includes “airborne surveillance and special missions,” according to its website.