Federal safety investigators are combing the scene of a plane crash on an Arizona cliff to find clues to determine what happened, according to The Arizona Republic.
The National Safety Transportation Board is collecting scattered wreckage from the plane, which slammed into a cliff in the Superstition Mountains not far from Phoenix, killing six people the night before Thanksgiving. The victims included a father and his three children.
The crash site can only be accessed by chopper or rappellers’ ropes, according to The Republic.
The accident involving a twin-engine Rockwell Aero Commander 690 killed: Shawn Perry, 39, and his three children; Russel Hardy, 31; and Joseph Hardwick, 22, an aircraft mechanic.
Both Perry and Hardy were pilots, and investigators are trying to determine who was flying the plane when it crashed, The Republic reported. The small plane slammed into a cliff just give minutes after its takeoff, missing the top of it by only 150 to 200 feet, according to the newspaper.
Hardy owned Ponderosa Aviation Inc. in Safford, Ariz., and had just purchased the plane that crashed. The plane was transported from Indiana to Arizona on Nov. 16.
According to The Republic, whoever was piloting the plane, Hardy or Perry, was flying under visual flight rules. That means that he had to see and veer away from the mountain on his own, without any help from air-traffic control.
Perry had flown to Mesa from Safford to pick up his children Morgan, 9, Logan, 8, and Luke, 6, to bring them to his place for Thanksgiving.
He was divorced from their mother Karen Perry, who is also a pilot.