NTSB: Plane that crashed in Southeast Alaska, killing 3, struck just below high ridgeline

Federal investigators say a plane that crashed last month in the high peaks of Glacier Bay National Park, killing the pilot and two passengers, was a few hundred feet below a high ridge when it struck the mountainside.

The 1948 Beechcraft Bonanza left Juneau in the early afternoon on July 20 for Yakutat but never arrived. Authorities identified the pilot as Samuel Wright, of Haines, and the passengers as Tanya Hutchins and her partner Hans Munich, owner of Coastal Air Service in Yakutat.

The plane crashed into the east side of Mount Crillon, one of the higher mountains of the coastal Fairweather Range, authorities said, describing the area as vertical rock and snow-covered terrain punctuated by hanging glaciers and crevasses.

The plane’s tracking signal stopped at an altitude of about 10,875 feet, 345 feet below the top of the ridge, according to the new preliminary report released Wednesday by the National Transportation Safety Board. The report also references a forecast warning of clouds obscuring mountaintops in the region.

A more comprehensive report, including any probable cause of the crash, isn’t expected to be released until next year.

The preliminary report says that an aerial search on Aug. 5 revealed “portions of highly fragmented airplane wreckage” at about 6,200 feet — more than 4,500 feet below the area where authorities believed the plane initially crashed, according to the federal report.

That search was conducted by a private pilot, officials said Wednesday.

Authorities had previously not announced the location of any wreckage, though they said earlier this month that a disturbed area marked the apparent initial crash site.

The discovery of the plane came more than two weeks after the U.S. Coast Guard suspended an extensive search for the plane and its three missing occupants. The Civil Air Patrol reported finding what appeared to be the initial impact site, marked by a “V-shape” mark in the snow near the same spot where the plane’s tracking signal ended, according to the new report.

The plane’s tracking data showed a departure from Juneau at about 1:45 p.m. that Saturday, the report said.

The plane headed northwest for about 72 miles before the track began heading southwest through the glaciated mountains of the park for another 30 miles, the report states. Just after 2:20 p.m., as the plane flew at more than 160 mph, “the flight track abruptly stops” on the east side of the mountain, it states.

The wreckage was seen over an area of rough, steep, crevasse-covered glacial terrain, the report states.

The National Weather Service had issued an aviation notice for mountain obscuration in the accident region, according to the report. A model provided by the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration “suggested the presence of clouds” from 3,000 feet to 12,500 feet in the accident region, it said.

Any information in the report is preliminary, including that describing the weather, Clint Johnson, the NTSB’s Alaska chief, said Wednesday. An agency meteorologist is looking into weather conditions at the time of the crash and that information will be released as part of future findings, Johnson said.

“That’s going to be much more detailed,” he said.

Separate memorials are planned Aug. 24 for Wright in Haines, and for Hutchins and Munich on Orcas Island in Washington state, according to obituaries for Wright and Hutchins.

Coastal Air is no longer accepting reservations and the company is offering to refund deposits or payments for future bookings, according to a message on the company website.

Wright volunteered to fly Munich and Hutchins to Juneau, according to a remembrance by Haines author Heather Lende published in the Chilkat Valley News. Another Haines pilot called him “a mentor and ‘true aviator’ who possessed an ‘innate’ understanding of all aspects of flight from philosophical to mechanical,” Lende wrote.

Munich, also a pilot, started flying wheeled and float planes in 1987, according to Coastal Air’s website. Hutchins, who graduated high school with Munich, moved from Orcas Island to Yakutat to join him in 2006, according to her obituary. They lived a nomadic life “full of adventure and travel,” splitting time between Yakutat, Lake Havasu in Arizona and Anacortes in Washington.

[Correction: This story has been updated to reflect that the crash happened in Glacier Bay National Park, not Glacier National Park, and to correct the name of the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration.]