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It was a sluggish, shaky takeoff. The four-seat Cessna seemed to shudder from the moment it lifted off Runway 30, and investigators have suggested it was too heavy for the conditions at that altitude. Everyone on board must have instantly realized something was wrong. Jessica's plane was equipped with dual controls, so that Reid could immediately take over in an emergency, and presumably he did--his arms were fractured more severely than hers, suggesting he had his hands on the yoke. In such a situation, an experienced pilot might have landed the plane on the golf course at the end of the runway or the four-lane road near the crash site. Instead, the Cessna was attempting a 180 [degree] turn to make its way back to the runway when it appeared to stall. For a moment, it seemed to stop in midair before it plunged vertically near the driveway of a single-story brick house about a mile north of the airport. It crumpled like a giant child's toy. Tom Johnson, a former pilot and claims adjuster for State Farm, was driving nearby and witnessed the crash. "It was struggling. You could tell it was overloaded," he said. "It fell like a lawn dart, straight down." According to the authorities, everyone on board was killed on impact.
Within half an hour, the plane was covered with a tarpaulin, like a shroud. Only its red-white-and-blue tail peeked out from beneath the covering. Soon the people of Cheyenne began to visit the crash site, leaving poems, flowers and stuffed animals. Two investigators for the National Transportation Safety Board were at the scene within a few hours. The plane did not have a flight recorder, nor was it required to have one. Steve McCreary, an ntsb investigator, could not say whether Reid had declared some sort of emergency before the crash.
Experienced pilots were left to wonder what happened. Perhaps Jessica would not have been able to maneuver out of the storm, but Reid certainly would have. Warren Morningstar of the Aircraft Owners and Pilots Association, said, with dual controls "the pilot in command can easily control the aircraft from either seat. There is never a situation in which the nonpilot can put the plane into such immediate peril that there is no recovery." Only after an analysis and "probable cause" finding in about six months will the FAA review its regulations covering young pilots.
Jessica's parents seemed determined to give their daughter independence from the start: she was delivered in a birthing tub without benefit of doctor or midwife. Her mother Lisa Blair Hathaway says she wanted her daughter to have a feeling of "floating." Her parents seemed to embrace a philosophy that was a mishmash of '60s idealism, Emersonian self-reliance and New Age cliche. Hathaway describes herself as an artist and a spiritual healer. While Jessica was mostly raised in Massachusetts, she lived in Pescadero, California, a tiny onetime fishing village where old dogs lazily patrol the streets because there is no traffic. It was 25 miles to Jessica's father's home in suburban San Mateo County, where he worked as a corporate consultant and lived with his current wife. Jessica and her mother lived in a house without television, which explains why Jessica's mother did not know who Jane Pauley was when the NBC star came to call after Jessica's death.