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Also in America, a very puzzling, low-altitude, in-flight apparent collision occurred on October 23, 2002, just northeast of Mobile, Alabama, according to a National Transportation Safety Board (NTSB) accident report. En route from Mobile to Montgomery, Thomas Preziose, fifty-four, with 4,000 total flight hours to his credit, was piloting alone, carrying about 420 pounds of paper records cargo. He took off for this flight at 7:40 p.m. The preliminary accident report stated that the Cessna 208B, a Cargomaster with the FAA registration number N76U—a high-wing, single-engine commercial airplane— "collided in-flight with an unknown object [italics mine] at 3,000 feet and descended uncontrolled into swampy water in the Big Bateau Bay in Spanish Fort, Alabama." [9] The crash occurred about six minutes after take-off, at approximately 7:46 p.m. Interestingly, the NTSB saw fit to issue a later report that did not mention the collision with an unknown object. nm : 1 6 Based on data from an automated surface-observing system 11 miles from the accident site, recorded at 6:53 p.m., there was a layer of scattered clouds at 700 feet and a more solid overcast beginning at 1,200 feet with clear air in between, and a visibility of five miles. The wind was 11 knots at 60 degrees. It may be significant to this fatal accident to note that a DC-10 passed about 1,000 feet above the Cessna after approaching him from about his eleven-o'clock position at 7:45—seconds before the crash—and would have produced wing-tip vortex turbulence. [10] Afterward, the pilot uttered his final words before his death: "Night Ship 282,1 needed to deviate, I needed to deviate, I needed to deviate, I needed—" (end of transmission at 7:45:57 P-m.). If Preziose collided with a physical object, it was never located. Yet a strange red residue (referred to as "transfer marks") was found coating at least fourteen different areas of the downed airplane that were widely separated in location both inside and outside the aircraft. The engine block had been split, suggesting a very great force of impact. Unfortunately, radar data recording hardware was inoperative at the time of the accident, yet the NTSB did not request radar data from the Pensacola Naval Air Station, less than an hour away. The DC-10 that passed over the Cessna just before the crash was inspected upon landing, and no damage of any kind was found. The final NTSB report indicated that the accident was caused by disorientation. However, an independent investigation found pilot pilot disorientation. However, an independent investigation found numerous discrepancies with regard to both the FAA documentation and the investigation conducted by the NTSB. [11] Several samples of the red residue on the Cargomaster were analyzed using a Fourier Transform Infrared Spectroscopy device. One red sample was found to be most similar to reference material consisting of tere- and isophthalate polymer with the "possible presence of inorganic silicate compounds." [12] Another sample of bare metal from the wing was investigatio: an disorientation.