Plane crash nola east (Fox 8 News anchor Nancy Parker killed in the crash...RIP)

Please note that I am not an NTSB crash investigator, but I am a private pilot and an A&P technician who has been partially involved in such incidents in the past.
As I see it, due to one credible eye-witness account the investigators will be focusing on two main causes for this tragic light airplane crash... sudden incapacitation of the pilot, Mr. Augustus, or an inflight failure of catastrophic proportions to part of the airframe.

The eye-witness described the descent of the airplane as being "straight down" before it impacted the ground. This indicates that the airplane was not being controlled or was incapable of being controlled. I only say this because the current information being reported to the public is that the aircraft type was a "two-seat Cessna" airplane. While the most common types of crashes in close proximity to an airport involves takeoff/departure stalls (loss of aerodynamic lift due to an extreme angle of attack of the wing), it seems very unlikely that an experienced stunt pilot like Mr. Augustus would have been doing aerobatic maneuvers at low altitude soon after takeoff. (Note: I'm only assuming the incident happened on the takeoff climb due to the likelihood that the winds were coming out of the south yesterday afternoon causing the active runway at the time to be 18R.)

While we can't know what the primary intention of flight was as a news story, it seems unlikely that an aerobatics demonstration was being featured. (While there is a version of two-seat Cessna airplane that is designed for light aerobatics (150 Aerobat), this was not the type of stunt plane used by Mr. Augustus. Besides, if the news story was to include video footage, it would have had to be fitted with some sort of 'GoPro-type' mounted camera(s) as Ms. Parker would not have been shooting video footage herself during such maneuvers. So my personal speculation was a story that included the history of the pilot with some (non-aerobatic) overviews of the city portrayed during the report. Or else Ms. Parker was simply offered a chance to take a joyride to see her city from the vantage point of a small airplane... a much different experience than flying commercially.

If my assumptions are correct, a simple/sudden loss of power on takeoff would have simply required the pilot to push the yoke forward, get the nose down to maintain airspeed, and to make a 'dead-stick' landing on Jourdan Road, which is long, rather unobstructed, and almost directly below their flight path. But the fact that the airplane crashed almost vertically indicates that there was a complete loss of control for some reason. Though a 'stall/spin' scenario is certainly not out of the realm of possibility, it seems more likely to me that either the pilot became incapacitated (ie, possible heart attack, etc.) or a loss of control due to a major structural failure.

One of the items that receive special attention during annual inspections on high wing Cessna airplanes is the bolts that attach the struts to the wing spar. Fatigue, corrosion, and/or cracks in the fittings have been responsible for loss of a wing. While it may not completely separate from the fuselage, a loss of this attach point would simply cause the wing to fold upward and there would be no chance to maintain lift/flight of any kind. Though I do realize that all of this is just speculation on my part, I will certainly be engrossed with any follow up to the investigation of this crash to learn what the official conclusion is to the NTSB investigation.

Death is a very sad subject made even worse when it is unexpected and affects so many others. As we have recently seen with the sudden & devastating loss of Andrus' son-in-law, life can be fleeting and we can lose those we love in an instant of time. Show love to everyone close to you every day! One day we all will be glad that we did so.

(Edit: Reports now confirm that the aircraft involved was the Pitts S-2B high performance biplane that Mr. Augustus used in his stunt shows. Such an aircraft type would change most all of the scenarios mentioned above. The initial reports of the aircraft type that crashed were false. We'll have to stay tuned to additional facts as they become available.)