Pilot of crashed plane familiar with aerobatic stunts

BLUE MOUNTAIN BEACH, FLORIDA - A pilot killed in a crash near the Florida Panhandle community of Blue Mountain Beach often did barrel rolls and other stunts in his aerobatics plane, built in Russia. <br> <br> The National Transportation Safety Board and Federal Aviation Administration were investigating Friday to determine what caused the single-engine Interavia E-3 to nose down into a Walton County swamp. <br> <br> FAA officials said the crash Wednesday killed 47-year-old David Gerald Naber of Niceville, also a pilot for Atlanta-based Delta Air Lines. <br> <br> John Mashburn is a flight instructor for Miracle Strip Aviation at Destin Airport, where Naber kept his plane. He said Naber was an experienced and passionate pilot who loved to come out and play. <br> <br> Naber took off from Destin about 9:40 a.m. CDT on Wednesday. His wife showed up about five hours later worried that he had not returned. <br> <br> Jack Marshall, a pilot, volunteered to take her up for an air search. <br> <br> With help from another private pilot, they spotted the wreckage of Naber&#39;s bright yellow plane in an area where controllers at nearby Eglin Air Force Base last reported having radar contact with the E-3. <br> <br> The Florida Division of Forestry bulldozed a path to the crash site, about a mile from the nearest road, but authorities were unable to remove Naber&#39;s body and the wreckage until Thursday. <br> <br> An FAA official said the plane still had about an hour&#39;s worth of fuel in its tanks.