NTSB: Amateur-built airplane began to break up before crash

KINGMAN, Ariz. (AP) — A National Transportation Safety Board preliminary report released Thursday says a Nevada man’s experimental small plane crashed in northwestern Arizona after beginning to break up in midair. Mohave County Sheriff’s officials said previously that 73-year-old Richard Dennis Moynihan of Boulder City was the only person aboard the single-engine plane when it crash Feb. 19 northwest of Kingman. According to the NTSB preliminary report, the amateur-built Vans RV-7A had “an in-flight breakup” while making a rapid descending turn and then spiraled nose-down into the ground. The preliminary report said several pieces fell from the airplane as it descended to the ground.