A stunt pilot whose plane crashed in New Orleans last week, killing him and local television journalist Nancy Parker, reported unspecified problems shortly after taking off, NBC News reported.
The pilot, Franklin J.P. Augustus, had been cleared to return to New Orleans' Lakefront Airport when the aircraft struck the ground in a nearby field, the National Transportation Safety Board said in a statement Saturday.
The crash also killed Parker, 53, an award-winning anchor with a local Fox affiliate. Parker, who earned five Emmy Awards for her work as a journalist, was reporting a story on Augustus when she died.
Parker was a fixture in New Orleans and at the station she worked at for 23 years. Her colleagues choked back tears as they shared news of the fatal accident during their newscast.