A pilot who died when his single-engine plane crashed near Brighton intentionally flew into the ground to commit suicide, a National Transportation Safety Board report released earlier this month said.
Investigators learned that 41-year-old Wade Howard Tefft’s wife had told him she wanted a divorce and was buying another home.
“About five years earlier, (Tefft) had told her that if she ever left him, he would fly his airplane into the ground and kill himself,” the report said.
Tefft was killed in the Jan. 11 crashof a single-engine Piper PA-28 northeast of Denver International Airport and north of Front Range Airport. He was the only one aboard when the aircraft went down in a wheat field.
The NTSB released its probable cause report on the crash April 6.
Tefft’s wife told authorities she believed he had committed suicide, and the coroner’s office ruled his manner of death suicide, the NTSB report says.
