PALMER — Witnesses to a late September plane crash that killed a Palmer pilot heard the Cessna 206 engine sputter after takeoff, just before the plane went down, according to a new federal report.
Hannah Dollick, 28, was found dead inside the plane on the Porcupine River northwest of the village of Chalkyitsik, which is about 50 miles east of Fort Yukon, authorities have said.
Dollick, flying a plane owned and operated by Kavik Aviation Services LLC, had departed from Circle City and was reportedly transporting fuel to another airplane at a remote location, according to a preliminary report released late last week by the National Transportation Safety Board. There were no passengers in the plane.
Witnesses told investigators that Dollick landed on a remote gravel bar next to the river, loaded fuel containers as cargo, and added fuel to the plane’s tank, according to the report, written by investigator Mark Ward.
After Dollick finished refueling and took off, witnesses heard the engine “sputtering” and then saw the plane bank hard to the right before the right wing hit the water, Ward wrote. The airplane spun before becoming partly submerged, he said.
Investigators will examine the wreckage at a facility in Wasilla.
The crash was the ninth fatal plane or helicopter crash in September.