In 2021, Gwen Shamblin Lara and six others were killed in a plane crash. Now the final report of the investigation into what caused the deadly crash has been revealed.
Shamblin Lara had a slow rise to fame as a weight-loss guru, who later turned into a controversial religious leader. She was 66 years old when she died in the plane crash.
Now, as People reports, the report reveals that the May 29th plane crash was likely the result of Shamblin’s husband, who was piloting the plane, becoming disoriented in the clouds. The plane Tarzan actor Joe Lara was piloting crashed into Percy Priest Lake just moments after taking off from an airport in Tennessee.
According to the National Transportation Safety Board, flight data indicated that after the plane had entered the clouds, it “made a series of heading changes, along with several climbs and descents, before it entered a steep, descending left turn.”
The report continued by stating that Lara’s actions after takeoff “was consistent with the onset of a type of spatial disorientation known as somatogravic illusion.” It was further decided that Lara “likely did not effectively use his instrumentation during takeoff and climb,” People reported.
A witness told the National Transportation Safety Board that the plane hit the lake “straight down,” describing it as the “nose of the airplane impacting the water first.”
It was also determined that the plane showed no evidence of any “mechanical malfunctions or failures that would have precluded normal operation.” Also among those who died in the crash were Jennifer J. Martin, David L. Martin, Jessica Walters, Jonathan Walters, and Brandon Hannah.
Just this year, Lifetime premiered a movie about Shamblin Lara’s rise to fame, with Jennifer Grey portraying the late religious leader. Shamblin founded the church, which was often described as a cult, in 1999, and it faced several accusations of abuse and exploitation.
Shamblin faced criticism for her hypocrisy after she divorced her first husband, David Shamblin, to marry actor Joe Lara in 2018. Gwen was someone who opposed divorce in her church.
