Investigators still waiting to talk to Stevens crash survivors

But they are still early in their investigation, with many records to collect and people to interview, said Deborah Hersman, chairwoman of the National Transportation Safety Board.

Nine investigators from the NTSB are working the case including two in Dillingham near where the crash occurred, Hersman told reporters at a late afternoon briefing.

The crash also injured four people. Stevens and the other passengers were on a GCI plane that took off from a company lodge on the Agulowak River north of Dillingham sometime Monday afternoon. Investigators are still trying to pin down the time.

The group was headed for an afternoon of silver salmon fishing on the Nushagak River, but the plane smashed into a mountain in the Muklung Hills range. Assuming they didn't detour after leaving the lodge, the wreck would have happened about 15 minutes after takeoff, Hersman said.

Investigators went to Providence Alaska Medical Center Thursday morning to attempt to interview some of the four survivors, but the patients weren't ready, she said. Sean O'Keefe, former NASA head, was still in critical condition while his son, Kevin, and Jim Morhard, a lobbyist, had been upgraded to fair. The youngest person on board, 13-year-old Willy Phillips, was in good condition.

Besides Stevens, those killed were the pilot, Terry Smith, lobbyist Bill Phillips, who is Willy's dad, GCI senior vice president Dana Tindall, and Tindall's 16-year-old daughter, Corey. The adults were either connected to GCI or were friends and political associates of Stevens.

THE INVESTIGATIVE TEAM

Hersman said she would be updated at a progress meeting Thursday evening on what information her investigators had collected throughout the day. Investigative teams are divided by topic, including the weather; pilot background and aircraft maintenance; aircraft worthiness; and survivability, she said.

"We have one group that's at the lodge. We have another group that's here in Anchorage that's conducting interviews. We have other groups that are working with company personnel and gathering records," Hersman said.

In Dillingham around the time of the crash, the winds were gusty and it was raining lightly. Visibility was three miles, she said.

But in Alaska "the weather can be completely different just 10 miles away," noted Adam White, president of the Alaska Airmen's Association.

Investigators are trying to find out what the weather was like where the plane crashed, some 20 miles from Dillingham, Hersman said.

The NTSB brings in people with special knowledge or technical expertise as "parties" to the investigation. The Federal Aviation Administration is always a party and in this case the group also includes Alaska State Troopers; Viking Air, which holds manufacturing rights to the airframe; and Honeywell, the engine manufacturer. GCI will probably become a party as well, she said.

"They help us to develop the factual record but it's up to the safety board to conduct the analysis, determine the probable cause, and make the recommendation," Hersman said.

ON THE AIRCRAFT

The Otter, built in 1957, was overhauled and retrofitted with a turbine engine in 2005, she said. It's cockpit instruments have been updated, too, she said.

"Our investigator said it was very well outfitted," she said.

Investigators haven't yet determined if it had an emergency locator transmitter and if so, why the ELT didn't go off, she said.

Another area of interest is where the survivors were seated in the plane. One was in the co-pilot's seat. Hersman said investigators aren't yet sure about the rest.

The people who died likely did so soon after impact, Alaska's chief medical examiner, Dr. Katherine Raven, said in an interview. Their injuries from blunt force trauma were not survivable, she said. She said she couldn't provide specific information about individuals because of privacy considerations.

GCI, unaware that the plane was missing, didn't notify authorities and launch a rescue until hours after the plane failed to show up at its fish camp destination. A faster response likely wouldn't have saved any of the five, Raven said.

"They truly died from the blunt impact and it wouldn't have mattered," she said. "I can't say for the survivors."

Dr. Dani Bowman, an Anchorage physician who specializes in pediatric intensive care, was at the lodge Monday and was flown to the wreckage to provide care overnight, GCI said. She is married to GCI President Ron Duncan.

THE PILOT

Investigators were still collecting information about pilot Terry Smith, 62, including how he came to be flying the GCI Otter on Monday. Smith lived on Campbell Lake, a house away from Duncan, Anchorage property records show. Investigators don't know yet how familiar he was with the Otter or the route.

Smith had a 28-year career as an Alaska Airlines pilot and after that worked two years as Conoco Phillips' aviation manager, leaving that job July 1. But he had Bush experience, too. His father, Theron "Smitty" Smith, flew in Alaska before statehood and supervised and trained pilots for the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service.

"I was basically raised at the hangar," Terry Smith said in a 2000 interview posted on the Fish and Wildlife Service Web site. He remembered being out there since age 4 and said even as a young kid he'd critique the landings of pilots in training.

"As the people came through with all different levels of piloting ability, Dad would work with them. I would ride along. It was an aviation education. I'm sure there is no parallel."

He said his father always emphasized training in low-level ground maneuvers for the biologists, who might be more focused on what was on the ground than flying the plane.

Smith had a Cessna 185E that he flew in rural Alaska. He's also known for flying a Grumman Albatross. He and his wife, Terri, also a pilot, flew it in December 2001 on the inaugural flight for private planes from Nome to Siberia, according to The New York Times.

Last year, he and his wife were flying in New Zealand in a Piper Cub. They were forced to ditch it in a riverbed after oil spread over their windshield, according to a post on a news Web site.

White, of the airmen's association, said Smith had an excellent reputation for safety. He gave talks at the Alaska Aviation Safety Foundation's annual seaplane seminar that were well received.

Smith "was always preaching the mantra that you always stay ahead of the airplane. You always have an out," White said. "If the weather closes in, what am I going to do? Where am I going to go? You don't allow yourself to get in a situation where there's no escape.

"He was always talking about that."

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