The stunt pilot whose plane crashed in New Orleans on Friday, killing him and WVUE Anchor Nancy Parker, reported unspecified problems shortly after taking off.

The pilot, Franklin J.P. Augustus, had been cleared to return to New Orleans' Lakefront Airport when the aircraft struck the ground in a nearby field, the National Transportation Safety Board said in a statement Saturday.

Parker was reporting a story on Augustus when she died in the crash.

H/T NBC