Gwen Shamblin's husband was to blame for deadly private jet crash
Weight loss guru cult leader Gwen Shamblin and six others died in private jet crash when her Tarzan star husband who was flying aircraft became disorientated, NTSB rules
- The NTSB released their final report Wednesday on the March 29, 2021 crash
- The plane, a Cessna C501 crashed into Percy Priest Lake, in Tennessee 10:53am
- Local flight instructor who flew with pilot Joe Lara many times described him as a ‘safe pilot but had trouble with multitasking and with situational awareness’
Diet guru turned cult leader Gwen Shamblin died in a private jet crash with six others when her Tarzan star husband became disorientated while piloting, the NTSB has ruled.
The revelation comes nearly two years after Lara’s private jet – a Cessna C501 aircraft – plunged into Percy Priest Lake in Tennessee minutes after taking off on March 29, 2021 around 11am, according to a final report released Wednesday by the National Transportation Safety Board.
Shamblin’s spouse Joe Lara was piloting the plane at the time, and National Transportation Safety Board believes he mistakenly thought he was pitching the jet upwards, when it was actually descending towards the ground.
The plane that had departed Smyrna Rutherford County Airport en route to Palm Beach International Airport.
Shamblin and her spouse, Joe Lara, who played Tarzan in the 1990s TV series ‘Tarzan: The Epic Adventures,’ perished along with Shamblin’s son-in-law Brandon Hannah, and church leaders David and Jennifer Martin, and Jessica and Jonathan Walters on March 29, 2021.
Flight track data found that the plane ‘made a series of heading changes, along with several climbs and descents, before it entered a steep, descending left turn,’ the crash report cited.
Shamblin and her spouse, Joe Lara, who played Tarzan in the 1990s TV series ‘Tarzan: The Epic Adventures,’ perished along with five other passengers
Gwen Shamblin Lara founded the Remnant Fellowship Church in Brentwood in 1999 and was the author of the faith-based weight loss book, The Weigh Down Diet, a diet based in Christian practices
Shamblin Lara’s daughter Elizabeth Hannah shared the news of the horrific crash in a text sent out on 4:24pm March 29, 2021. Her husband was also on the doomed flight
The NTSB performance study revealed that the maneuvering of the aircraft was consistent with a type of spatial disorientation- called somatogravic illusion, which likely caused the pilot to perceive that the airplane was pitching up even though it was actually in a continuous descent.
It occurs during poor visibility, when it becomes impossible for a pilot to see the horizon in front of them, and when they must rely on the plane’s instruments to remain in the air safely.
Local flight instructor, William Lardent, who had flown with Lara several times in the same plane that crashed, said described Lara as a ‘safe pilot but had trouble with multitasking and with situational awareness.’
He told investigators that Lara was rated to fly with instruments only and struggled when forced to rely on instruments in low visibility and while using the plane´s autopilot.
‘Mr. Lara could not visualize in his mind where the airplane was in time/space unless he saw it on his iPad,’ according to an NTSB account of the interview.
The interview also revealed Lara’s desire to fly to bigger cities like New York and Las Vegas, but the flight instructor told him he was not ready because those areas were congested.
The flight instructor told Lara, as per investigators he `had to be on your game´ to operate in those fast-moving environments.’
Witnesses to the crash included a fisherman who ‘heard what he thought was a low flying military jet before he saw the airplane impact the lake in a `straight down´ attitude with the nose of the airplane impacting the water first,’ according to the report.
Post-accident examination of the wreckage revealed no obvious mechanical malfunctions with the aircraft, and investigators believe it is unlikely that any medical condition of the pilot or co-pilot were a factor in the crash.
Church leaders David and Jennifer Martin were aboard the flight and died
Jonathan and Jessica Walters were also leaders of the church and sadly perished
Brandon and Elizabeth Hannah. Brandon, was Shamblin Lara’s son-in-law was one of the seven people killed in the March 2021 crash
Gwen Shamblin Lara founded the Remnant Fellowship Church in Brentwood in 1999 and was the author of the faith-based weight loss book, The Weigh Down Diet, a diet based in Christian practices.
Elizabeth Hannah, Lara’s daughter, whose husband was on the doomed flight, sent out an internal text to families of the church telling them the plane ‘had to go down for a controlled, quick landing,’ WTVF reported.
The aircraft was registered under Shamblin Lara and her husband’s company JL&GL Productions, LP.
A photo of the Cessna C501 plunged into Percy Priest Lake minutes after takeoff from an airport just outside Nashville. The aircraft was registered through their company JL&GL Productions LP, WTVF reported
A map showing the route the plane was traveling and the crash site in Percy Priest Lake located in Smyrna, Tennessee
This flight-tracker shows the route the plane took before crashing shortly after taking off from Smyrna/Rutherford County Airport
The Remnant Fellowship Church is pictured in Brentwood, Tennessee
The Remnant Fellowship: A church of ‘hope’ for some and a ‘cult’ for others
In 2002, Christian diet guru Gwen Shamblin Lara bought 40 acres of land in Brentwood, Tennessee, and donated the entire property for the building of the Remnant Fellowship Church.
The Remnant Fellowship Church opened its doors in November of 2004 and the entire Weigh Down organization was donated to the church in 2006.
The church bases its ministry on the Bible-based teachings of Gwen Shamblin through Weigh Down Ministries, according to the church’s website.
Remnant remains based in Brentwood but its services are webcast out to over 100 Remnant Fellowship locations worldwide, according to the church.
The church’s global leadership includes a team team consisting of ‘120 shepherds, deacons, ministry leaders, and ministry assistants.
‘Any decisions made on behalf of the church are made through the leadership team with much prayer and discussion. Many of the day-to-day operations are handled through the various ministry teams,’ the church’s website reads.
The church is known for helping people through problems such as alcohol and drug addiction and markets itself to people ‘weary of the constant battles in today’s world.’
‘Rising crime, financial problems, broken homes, alcohol and drug abuse, rebellious children, disappearing morality – it seems like the world is growing further and further away from God and Christ, and the results are obvious,’ the church’s website reads.
The church notes that it is ‘not a man-made doctrine or dogma about sacraments or rituals.’
Its ‘assemblies’ take place on Wednesday nights and Saturday mornings and usually run between 90 minutes and two hours long with music provided by a chamber orchestra, choirs and a praise band.
People who support the church have praised it for helping them through the ‘hopelessness’ in their lives.
‘This is a church of change changing from increasing hopelessness of the world to a high calling that is filled with more and more hope and blessings from God!!’ a woman named Sherri Johnson wrote in a Facebook review.
Another woman named Cora Elizabeth Palmer wrote: ‘Most peaceful place on Earth. Very thankful to get to be a part of such an awesome church!’
However, the church has also faced criticism and characterizations as a ‘cult.’
Former members Adam and Maria Brooks wrote in 2002 that they were ‘blindly caught up in Mrs. Shamblin’s call for faithful followers to leave their churches’ and claimed that she would recruit members of her church from her Weigh Down events.
‘As a result, in the summer of 2001 we left our church for a brief period and nearly joined Remnant Fellowship,’ the couple wrote.
‘For us, that experience gave us a traumatic taste of what it is like to be recruited into a cult and to experience ‘cultic mind control.’
The church also faced criticism in 2007 after two members Joseph and Sonya Smith were convicted of beating their 8-year-old son to death, NBC News reported. The church was reported to have stood by the couple amid their conviction and even paid for their legal appeals.
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