Dan Luke wrote:
"Robert M. Gary" wrote:

On Aug 31, 7:40 pm, Mike Granby wrote:
Another witness mentioned an engine sputter
Whatever the cause of a crash, there's always someone who hears the
engine splutter...

All aircraft engines sputter, that's just the nature of how they work.
They don't sound like BMV engines.

Is it possible the pilot decided to abort after he was airborne? The engine
sounded strong and the airplane came off fine at rotation, then it seems to
run out of steam. Or was that simply due to its climbing out of ground
effect?

It definitely wasn't obvious from the vantage point of the camera.
Could have been wind shear, coming out of ground effect too soon, engine
trouble, etc.

Matt