National Transportation Safety Board (NTSB) officials investigating Wednesday's crash of a US Airways Express/Air Midwest commuter plane in Charlotte, North Carolina have found the airliner's vital voice recorder and flight data recorder. According to NTSB head John Goglia, the voice recorder contains 34 minutes of "very reliable" conversation, which may be essential in discovering why the Beech 1900D turboprop plane clipped a US Airways hangar shortly after takeoff and burst into flames. Goglia, however, stated that the flight data recorder "is proving to be a little more difficult in extracting the information" but insisted "good data" would be obtained by the end of Thursday.

According to the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA), the pilot, identified as Katie Leslie, 26, made an emergency call before the crash but it was cut off before air traffic controllers could acquire any details. The plane took off at 8:45 a.m. EST from Charlotte-Douglas International Airport and was scheduled to land at 9:15 a.m. EST at Greenville-Spartanburg International Airport.

According to FAA reports, the plane was repaired last fall to replace a leaky fuel pump and in May to fix the airliner's landing gear. The crash was the first involving commercial airline fatalities in the United States since American Airlines Flight 587 crashed outside of New York City on November 21, 2001, killing 265 people.