Federal aviation investigators don’t believe that mechanical problems were to blame for the plane crash that killed former Alaska Sen. Ted Stevens and four other people in a remote area of the state last Monday, according to The Wall Street Journal.
http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424052748703960004575427731554724198.html?mod=WSJ_WSJ_US_News_5
Investigators for the National Transportation Safety Board have interviewed the four survivors of the accident, and tentatively believe that the actions of pilot Theron Smith may have doomed the amphibian aircraft.
Smith was piloting the “1950s-vintage single engine” plane, the newspaper said, when it crashed into a mountain, some 900 feet up the mountainside. Stevens and his party were being transported to a location for a fishing trip.
The probe is also examining whether a change in the weather helped lead to the accident, The Journal said Saturday. It’s believed that clouds may have hidden part of the mountain from Smith.
The aircraft, a De Havilland Otter, didn’t have state-of-the-art navigation equipment, with the pilot flying under visual flight rules, according to The Journal. The plane had an upgrade several years ago.
The accident scene had a 100-yard cut from the plane, and there was a large fuel slick there.
One of the crash’s survivors, former NASA chief Sean O’Keefe, had his condition upgraded to serious from critical last Friday. He is in an Anchorage hospital.