The National Transportation Safety Board has released a final report on an airplane crash that killed a well-known Springfield couple and their friend three years ago.
Sangamon County Coroner Cinda Edwards and her husband, former Springfield Mayor Frank Edwards along with family friend John Evans and the Edwards’ family dog were killed when their twin-engine Piper Aerostar went down in the afternoon of January 28, 2020 in an unincorporated area of Sangamon County near the outskirts of Springfield.
Prior to the crash, Frank Edwards who was piloting the plane, told air traffic control that the aircraft was having instrument trouble and difficulty with the weather.
According to the board’s final report according to WFMB in Springfield, the aircraft’s landing system guidance failed. The NTSB said in their report that Frank Edwards had reported 5 months prior to the crash that the horizontal situation indicator was malfunctioning and a new unit was shipped directly to Edwards. The NTSB could not determined if that new unit had been installed at the time of the crash.