Robert Kraus, dean of Aerospace at UND, said administrators were previously unaware of any mental health issues student pilot John Hauser may have been dealing with, but Hauser’s family confirmed that was the case. Kraus said the official cause of the crash will be made known when the NTSB releases its final report, which could take up to a year.
According to the National Transportation Safety Board’s preliminary report, the Piper PA-28-181 airplane operated by John Hauser, 19-year-old sophomore and commercial aviation student, made a “rapid descent” into the ground, not long after the plane took off. Hauser was killed in the Oct. 18 crash.