Ground crews still investigating yesterday’s plane crash near Yoakum
Officials release the names of the deceased, injured
One day after a single prop plane from out of state crashed into a field not far from the Yoakum Regional Airport, their intended destination, officials have released additional information about the Jan. 17 crash.
Five people were aboard the downed plane, four of whom lost their lives at about 10:40 a.m. Tuesday, Jan. 17.
Included among the casualties were the pilot, Steven Carl Tucker, 64, of Germantown, Tenn.; co-pilot Brandon Tyler Patterson, 34, also of Germantown; William Lee Garner, 66, of Memphis, Tenn., and Tyler Bradley Springer, 36, also of Memphis.
The four men were pronounced dead at the scene at 11:58 a.m. by Lavaca County Precinct 4 Justice of the Peace Hallie Hall, and autopsies have been ordered.
A fifth passenger, Keenan Vaughn, 45, of Germantown, Tenn., managed to free himself from the wreckage and crawl away from the crash site. He was later found by first responders and rushed to Citizens Medical Center in Victoria, where he listed Tuesday in serious but stable condition as of mid-afternoon Tuesday.
Sometime after that first report, Vaughn was transported to Brooke Army Medical Center in San Antonio for some more specialized care than was available at the Victoria hospital.
Investigation crews from Federal Aviation Administration and the National Transportation Safety Board arrived on Tuesday and continue to collect information at the crash scene as of early afternoon Wednesday.
A cause has still not been determined. The pilot had radioed ahead to Yoakum, minutes before the crash, but nothing in that transmission led anyone in Yoakum to believe there was any sort of trouble. Minutes later, the crash occurred.
Although plagued a heavy milk white fog and misty conditions for most of the morning on Tuesday, most of that fog was long gone when the plane went down.
Social media reports indicate that Tucker, the pilot, was one of the owners of Circle Y in Yoakum, one of just a small handful of leather crafting businesses still left in Yoakum, a town once dubbed “the Land of Leather.”