Report: Roy Halladay Flew Low Over Gulf Before Crash

Roy Halladay No. 34 of the Philadelphia Phillies delivers in Game 1 of the NLDS against the Cincinnati Reds at Citizens Bank Park on Oct. 6, 2010, in Philadelphia, Pa. (Chris Trotman/Getty Images)

Roy Halladay, the retired star MLB pitcher, flew quite low over the Gulf of Mexico just minutes before his deadly crash two weeks ago, according to reports on Monday.

Federal investigators said that Halladay, 40, climbed sharply in the final seconds before diving into the water, CBS reported. National Transportation Safety Board investigator Noreen Price didn’t issue any blame in the crash, adding that a final report would take one to two years.

She said that Halladay took off from a lake near his Tampa, Florida, home around 17 minutes before the accident. He flew in his ICON A5 to 1,900 feet before he dropped to 600 feet near the coastline. Halladay then skimmed the water at 11 feet while flying 105 mph, she said.

The plane climbed between 300 and 500 feet when it turned into a 45-degree dive and hit the water. The pitcher’s body was discovered inside the plane.

Halladay had flown about 700 hours before getting his license in 2013, and he had flown 51 hours in the ICON A5.

The remains of an ICON A5 ultralight airplane are moved from a boat ramp in the Gulf Harbors neighborhood of New Port Richey, Fla., on Nov. 8, 2017. The private plane, which belonged to Roy Halladay had just been removed from the shallow waters off Ben Pilot Point in New Port Richey where it crashed the day before, killing the 40-year-old former Toronto Blue Jays and Philadelphia Phillies pitcher Roy Halladay. (Douglas R. Clifford/Tampa Bay Times via AP)

When he got the plane, Halladay shared his excitement on Twitter. “Real life is better then my dreams!!” he said in one post.

“Sadly, this looks like a typical case of pilot hot-dogging,” Ross Aimer, a 33,000-hour pilot who heads an aviation consulting firm, was quoted by the Tampa Bay Times as saying. Halladay “came way too close” to the properties, he added.

The tail section of an ICON A5 ultralight airplane lies on a roadway near a boat ramp in the Gulf Harbors neighborhood of New Port Richey, Fla. on Nov. 8, 2017. The private plane, which belonged to Roy Halladay had just been removed from the shallow waters off Ben Pilot Point in New Port Richey where it crashed the day before, killing the 40-year-old former Toronto Blue Jays and Philadelphia Phillies pitcher Roy Halladay. (Douglas R. Clifford/Tampa Bay Times via AP)

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