Spier, who had a pilot’s license, was the sole occupant and died at the scene. Family members declined to comment Monday.
The National Transportation Safety Board sent an investigator to the scene Monday, said Terry Williams, a spokesman for the agency.
Spier was never in contact with air traffic control, the Federal Aviation Administration officials said, but that’s common for small, private aircraft on local flights. The FAA declined to provide further information.
The investigation will include an initial examination of the scene and the aircraft will likely be moved to another location for a more thorough inspection, Williams said.
“We’re going to be looking at where the aircraft came to rest, we’re going to be looking at the pilot’s records, we’re going to be looking at the maintenance records and we’re going to be looking at the weather,” Williams said. “These are very standard parts of our investigation.”
The weather was warm but otherwise not unusual Sunday evening, said Eric Elwell, chief meteorologist for WHIO Stormcenter 7.
“Skies were mostly clear and winds were out of the south-southwest at about 5 to 10 miles per hour,” Elwell said. “Visibility was good at the time.”
It’s common for private pilots not to have contact with the FAA, particularly when flying in or out of a private airstrip, said Dick Knapinski, a spokesman for the Experimental Aircraft Association. Private strips meant only for personal use typically have fewer regulations because only a small number of pilots use them, he said.
Debra Smith, who lives near the crash site, didn’t see the plane go down. But she heard the sirens and saw a row of first responders when she walked up a nearby hill to see what happened.
“Now that I found out he’s a 24-year-old boy that makes it worse,” Smith said. “Because he had a life ahead of him. He had a long life ahead of him.”
Spier was employed as a production planner at Airborne Maintenance and Engineering Services in Wilmington, said Debbie Lovelace, the company’s human resources director. He had worked for the company a couple of times and was just recently rehired, she said. The company overhauls and repairs aircraft.
“We are very saddened by his loss and his family is in our thoughts and our prayers,” Lovelace said.
Spier had also worked at Taughannock Aviation Corp., an aircraft management company in New York. He also studied airframe and powerplant technologies at a community college in New York, according to his Facebook page.
A post on Spier’s Facebook page shows how much he loved flying.
“I’m all about airplanes,” Spier said on Facebook. “Get me in a flying machine and I’m home.”
The fixed-wing, single-engine experimental plane was certified to Ronald Spier in July 1981, FAA records say. Ronald Spier is certified as a pilot, repairman and experimental aircraft builder.
The accident was the second fatal plane crash in Harmony Twp. in the past year. Levon G. King, 81, and Gloria D. King, 85, of Dearborn, Mich., were killed in a crash about a half mile from Newlove Road in July.
A preliminary report last year from the NTSB didn’t disclose an exact cause of that crash, but said rain and thunderstorms were in the area around the time of the crash. A final report hasn’t been released.
Experimental planes are generally safe, Knapinski said, and there little difference in the safety of a home-built or factory-built craft.
“There’s a downward trend in accidents and fatal accidents in homebuilt aircraft,” Knapinski said. “There were actually fewer that 40 fatal accidents last year. And the number of homebuilt aircraft is increasing by about 1,000 per year. There are more than 30,000 on the register now throughout the country.”
The planes are required to be certified and inspected for air-worthiness and are inspected annually, he said.
More than 70 percent of all plane crashes are related to pilot error, Knapinski said.
“It’s important to remember that every accident is a specific incident and must be investigated as such unless there is some common thread between the type of aircraft that is causing the accident,” he said.
Unmatched coverage
The Springfield News-Sun digs into important public safety issues, such as efforts to widen I-70 in Clark County and a separate fatal plane crash in Harmony Twp. last year.
By the numbers
40: Approximate number of fatal experimental plane accidents last year
30,000: Experimental aircraft registered across the U.S.
2: Fatal homebuilt plane crashes in Clark County in the past year