NTSB: Pilot Disoriented In Plane Crash

Federal investigators say bad weather and the pilot’s inexperience likely led to a plane crash in April 2011 near Topeka that killed a Kansas family.

A National Transportation Safety Board report says 35-year-old pilot Dylan Spencer of Scott City apparently became disoriented while trying to land using flight instruments in overcast and rainy weather.

The Spencer family was flying from Scott City to Topeka on April 22, 2011 when the plane crashed while he tried to land at Topeka’s Philip Billard Airport. Spencer, his wife, Amy, 34, and their two young children were killed.

Spencer had less than an hour of "instrument time" flying since he was rated to fly relying on instruments rather than sight.