LAKE PLACID, N.Y. -- The small plane crash that killed former NFL tight end Russ Francis and another man at an Adirondack Mountains airport occurred after the craft's engine apparently lost power, a federal investigator said Tuesday.
Francis, 70, and Richard McSpadden, 63, had just taken off from the Lake Placid Airport on Sunday afternoon in a single-engine Cessna 177 when the plane encountered trouble. The plane, which has two steering columns, had turned around in an attempt to land, officials said.
"The engine apparently lost power," National Transportation Safety Board investigator Todd Gunther said at a briefing Tuesday.