GREEN COVE SPRINGS, Fla. – A pilot killed Monday in a Kentucky plane crash has been identified as a Clay County man.
Authorities on Tuesday identified Timothy Michael Pankiewicz, 62, of Green Cove Springs, as the man whose remains were recovered from the wreckage of the crash site in eastern Kentucky.
The single-engine aircraft went down in a field near Hazard about 1:30 p.m. Monday and caught fire, police said. Firefighters put out the flames and federal investigators were notified of the incident.
Pankiewicz was pronounced dead at the scene. His remains were sent to the medical examiner’s office for an autopsy.
Based on preliminary details, investigators determined the pilot’s identity and concluded that his plane had taken off out of Florida and was heading to Ohio before the aircraft went down.
The Federal Aviation Administration and National Transportation Safety Board continue to investigate the cause of the crash, which remains unknown at this time.
According to the FAA’s registry, Pankiewicz is listed as the owner of an RV-8 model plane.
An aircraft with a matching registration number took off from Haller Airpark before 10 a.m. Monday and was last seen about 1:30 p.m. near Jackson, Kentucky, according to the flight-tracking website FlightAware.
A News4Jax crew was not allowed onto airpark property Wednesday. No one at the facility could be reached for comment.
Over the past few years, there have been at least two deadly crashes involving aircraft flying out Haller Airpark.
In May 2019, two planes were involved in a mid-air collision, which killed one of the pilots.
Six months later, another pilot was killed after taking off from Haller and crashing in Middleburg.
The NSTB has yet to release its final reports from either of those crashes.