This photo of the badly damaged plane looking in the direction of flight was included in this week’s FAA report.

A smell of smoke was an early sign that something was wrong, according to a preliminary report from the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) on the crash landing and fire of a Cessna 750 at 10:11 a.m. on August 5 at Chautauqua County Airport near Jamestown.

While the pilot, identified as Orchard Park businessman Gerald Buchheit, was seriously injured, the co-pilot, who first noticed the smoke, suffered minor injuries. The plane, owned by Access Stripe, was en route from Dunkirk to Fort Lauderdale to pick up aircraft parts and a mechanic to work on another company plane at the airport in the north of the county.

Shortly after takeoff, air traffic control communications showed that a Buffalo-based approach controller was clearing the flight to 47,000 feet, but the crew did not respond. After several unsuccessful attempts, the controller contacted Cleveland to see if the flight had switched to his radio frequency.

“During the initial climb at approximately 5,000 feet, (the copilot) smelled ‘electrical smoke,’ but the pilot did not,” the report states. “The copilot then no longer smelled the odor, but as the airplane climbed to approximately 8,000 feet, both pilots smelled electrical smoke. Both pilots stated that there was a smoke odor, but no visible smoke.”

Later, the Buffalo air traffic controller made intermittent contact with the Cessna crew, but the transmissions were “very garbled.” The flight crew’s last transmission was, “We’re about to land in Jamestown.”

When the plane was at 10,000 feet and “accelerating well over 250 (knots) and nose down,” the copilot said the master caution and control panel segments lit up, along with other Crew Alerting System messages. He tried to contact the air traffic controller before noticing that “Comm 2 had failed and the Garmin 5000 was displaying large red Xes,” the report said.

“The copilot described the actions of both crew members after landing as the cabin filled with smoke and they assessed their best escape routes as the aircraft was surrounded by fire,” the report said. “Eventually, the pilot opened the main cabin door and both crew members exited the aircraft without assistance.”

Investigators said in the report that a visual inspection of the engines also revealed thermal damage consistent with a post-impact fire and that there was no evidence of any pre-impact mechanical abnormalities. In addition, the co-pilot stated that he monitored engine functions throughout the flight and that there were no CAS reports related to the engines and that none of the engines were malfunctioning.

FAA officials are classifying the crash as a Class 3 investigation. The goal of this investigation is to uncover safety issues that will reveal the underlying causes of the accident.