NEWPORT NEWS, Va. -- A flight instructor who witnessed the plane crash that killed Viktoria Ljungman and injured two Hampton University students said they believed Ljungman tried to recover from a stall moments before the plane crashed shortly after takeoff.
State Police said Ljungman, a 22-year-old flight instructor, was teaching an 18-year-old Hampton student when the plane crashed at Newport News/Williamsburg International Airport (PHF) on October 6, 2022.
"A review of airport surveillance video revealed that after the airplane departed runway 20, it entered a steep (nose-high) pitch attitude," a recently released National Transportation Safety Board report read. "The airplane began to turn left while in this nosehigh attitude and reached an altitude of about 50-100 ft before it made a descending left-hand turn and impacted terrain west of the runway."
The report also included a witness account of the crash.
"A witness, who was a flight instructor, was taxing [sic] south on taxiway alpha when he observed the accident airplane in a “crazy” nose-high pitch attitude (about 30 degrees nose up) on takeoff," it read. "The airplane reached a height of about 200 ft above the ground, when the left wing stalled and dropped. The witness thought the instructor of the accident airplane tried to recover from the stall because the airplane’s wings leveled out momentarily before the left wing dropped again, and the airplane hit the ground on its belly. The witness described what he observed as a 'power on stall.'"
Ljungman, who moved to Virginia from Sweden to attend Hampton University, died at the scene.
The 18-year-old student and another teenage Hampton student survived the crash but suffered life-threatening injuries. Their current conditions have not been released.
Ljungman maintained an Instagram page where more than 20,000 people followed her progress as a pilot. After her death, followers left sympathetic comments and prayers on her page.
A GoFundMe established to help her family following her sudden death has raised more than $10,000.
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