Plane crash report reveals horrifying last minutes of Gwen Shamblin and Joe Lara

A new report claims that Joe Lara, who was the plane's pilot, most likely became lost in dense clouds before nosediving into a lake
UPDATED MAR 24, 2023
Gwen Shamblin Lara, her husband Joe Lara, and five other individuals died in a plane crash on March 29, 2021 (Instagram/@gwenshamblinlara)
Gwen Shamblin Lara, her husband Joe Lara, and five other individuals died in a plane crash on March 29, 2021 (Instagram/@gwenshamblinlara)

NASHVILLE, TENNESSEE: Gwen Shamblin Lara, her husband Joe Lara, and five other individuals died in a catastrophic private aviation accident on March 29, 2021. A new report claims that Joe, who was the plane's pilot, most likely became lost in dense clouds before nosediving into a lake.

National Transportation Safety Board claimed that Joe, who is best known for portraying Tarzan in the film 'Tarzan: The Epic Adventures', was flying the Cessna C501 when it crashed. The wealthy couple had flown out of their home in Tennessee for a holiday with friends. Officials from Rutherford County have named Brandon Hannah, David L Martin, Jennifer J Martin, Jessica Walters, and Jonathan Walters as the other plane crash victims, according to the Sun. All of them were Lara's friends and residents of Brentwood, Tennessee.

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What caused the 2021 plane crash?

The NTSB performance evaluation discovered that Joe most likely suffered from a form of spatial disorientation that led him to feel the jet was ascending while it actually spiraled to their tragic deaths. The crash report claims that based on flight track data, the aircraft entered clouds and undertook a "series of heading changes, along with several climbs and descents, before it entered a steep, descending left turn."

The NTSB investigation stated that the pilot "likely did not effectively use his instrumentation during takeoff and climb." The pilot was unable to recover when the aircraft began falling with a fast rate of acceleration because he may have thought the plane was nose-up rather than nose-down. The plane then made a hard impact with a small lake reservoir at a high speed.

The report claims that almost two-thirds of the plane's wreckage has been found, including both engines, the main cabin door, shards of the main cabin glass, and several broken seat frames. The retrieved wreckage lacked any indications of technical problems.

Was Joe Lara a certified pilot?

Joe was a certified pilot but wasn't licensed to fly the plane, according to the Tennessean. Joe's flight instructor William Lardent claimed that although he was technically capable of flying using "instruments only," meaning that he did not require visual cues to stay in the air, he still had difficulty doing it.

Lardent, who had flown with Joe on multiple occasions in the Cessna that crashed, stated that Joe relied significantly on his iPad to grasp his "time in space." The instructor concluded that Joe wasn't ready to fly into major airports like New York, Los Angeles, and Atlanta.

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