"But I didn't realize they were landing on the same runway," said Craig Mooney, father of pilot Justin Mooney, who survived the crash.
After the crash, Justin Mooney, 30, of Post Falls pulled Tyler Pickering, 3, of Caldwell, from the burning wreckage of the other plane.
Pickering's grandfather, Bill Keating, 52, of McCall, the pilot of the second plane, and two brothers, Dylan James Pickering, and Williams Christopher Pickering, 6, died in the crash. Tyler Pickering is recovering in a Salt Lake City hospital.
Mooney's passenger, Mark Fuller, 27, of Hayden escaped with minor injuries.
The NTSB report echoed previously released information about the crash at McCall Municipal Airport: about 7:50 p.m., two Cessnas collided in-flight over the approach end of runway 34 at McCall Municipal Airport. Both airplanes were destroyed in the collision, uncontrolled descent, and postcrash fire, the report said.
Craig Mooney, who was in McCall that day for business conference, was sitting outside the airport's aviation office waiting for his son to fly in and pick him up.
Justin Mooney, a commercial pilot and flight instructor, had planned for weeks to give his father his first flying lesson.
"It was the perfect weekend for this," Craig Mooney said Friday.
But the next few minutes turned their perfectly planned weekend tragic.
"I watched him fly over the airport then begin his approach pattern," Craig said. "I never took my eyes off of him all the way in."
He said as he watched his son circle around for the final approach, he noticed another plane switch on its landing lights as it made a direct approach from the southwest.
"He was about twice as high in the sky as Justin," Craig Mooney said. "And he was making a real steep descent."
"I had an eery feeling when I saw them come down," Craig Mooney said.
But that's when he lost sight of the planes behind a snowbank. Craig Mooney said he got up from his chair to wait for his son to taxi in.
"I turned to look back, and I saw smoke," Craig Mooney said. "And about two minutes later, I saw an explosion and saw a big cloud of smoke.
"I knew at this point something wasn't right."
Justin Mooney made a statement to the NTSB, saying he transmitted his position at least three times.
Keating was an experienced pilot who had been flying for more than 10 years and owned his own plane. He was returning from Caldwell, where he had picked up his three grandchildren.
The report did not reveal why the two pilots couldn't see each other. It also doesn't place blame on either pilot.
In fact, an introduction to the report says, "This is preliminary information, subject to change, and may contain errors."
A final NTSB report could take several months and will be released.
David Kennard: 377-6436
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