Plane's windscreen 'filled up with a mountain,' survivor says

The pilot and a longtime Anvik teacher who grew up there were killed in the crash. A family of four, including a young couple about to start their own teaching careers in Anvik, were injured but survived.

One of the new teachers, Don Evans, was sitting in the front right seat of the plane, next to pilot Ernest Chase. He spoke Monday afternoon from Providence Alaska Medical Center to Clint Johnson, an investigator with the National Transportation Safety Board.

The plane took off around 7:15 or 7:20 p.m. Saturday from McGrath, Johnson said. The three teachers on board had been in training there the past few days. They were headed back to Anvik but first were going to stop in Aniak, where the charter company, Inland Aviation Services, is based, Johnson said.

As clouds and fog rolled in, "they descended, got a little bit closer to the ground," Johnson said, recounting what Evans told him. The weather deteriorated further and the plane began to climb, Evans told the investigator.

"The next thing he knew, the windscreen was filled up with a mountain in front and they hit the mountain," Johnson said. Low clouds, fog and rain created "whiteout conditions," Evans told him.

They crashed around 7:40 p.m., Johnson estimated.

The account fits what the investigator saw Sunday at the crash site about 37 miles west of McGrath on the side of a small mountain. The plane appeared to have slammed into the hill nose first, he said.

CHILDREN IN SERIOUS CONDITION

The NTSB investigation still is in early stages. The Cessna 207 was equipped with a Capstone system, which collects data and provides a pilot with a dynamic display of the nearby terrain. Johnson doesn't yet know if the system was activated, but if it was, its stored data should provide valuable information, he said.

The investigator said the other survivors were too severely injured to be interviewed Monday.

Evans, 32, was listed in good condition at Providence. His wife, Rosemarie, also 32, was in fair condition, and their children, Donny, 10, and McKenzie, 8, were in serious condition, a Providence spokeswoman said. On Sunday, the children were in fair condition but after a more thorough evaluation, doctors revised their status to serious, spokeswoman Crystal Bailey said. Their conditions didn't actually worsen, she said.

Chase, 66, an experienced bush pilot who had flown the route numerous times, and teacher Julie Walker, 52, were killed in the crash.

Walker was sitting behind Chase, Johnson said. Why two died and four lived will be a matter for NTSB survivability experts, he said. Everyone on board was wearing seat belts.

'AUNTIE NO. 1'

The Evanses and Walker were the only three teachers at Blackwell School in Anvik, in the Iditarod School District. The Yukon River village has about 90 residents. Eighteen students were enrolled in the K-8 school, counting the two Evans children.

School was supposed to start Wednesday but officials were considering delaying school for Blackwell and three other closely connected schools, in Grayling, Holy Cross and Shageluk. The board was meeting Monday evening to decide what to do.

Walker's sudden death is hitting hard in Anvik and surrounding villages, said school leaders and relatives.

Walker was an Alaska Native teaching in her home village, a rarity and a source of pride, said Iditarod school board chairman Rudy Hamilton of Shagluk.

She was a beloved long-timer who started as a teacher's aide, he said. Then, while raising her own four children, Walker took college classes to earn her teaching degree. She had 29 years in the district, where she also worked as a secretary and a preschool teacher, and spent the last nine as a classroom teacher, according to the district.

"We lost a very good teacher," Hamilton said. "Very outgoing. Kind of a bubbly personality, always positive." She knew all the kids in all the nearby villages and would always ask after them by name, he said. "New babies -- knew them all. That kind of person."

Villagers gathered Monday at the tribal building for a luncheon "to remember who she was," said one of Walker's nieces, Crystal Walton.

"We're completely devastated," Walton said. "It's such a tragedy for our community. There's less than 100 people here. Kids grew up with her teaching them. I'm 27 and she taught me preschool."

Walker took her school kids ice fishing. She started a ski program, and launched softball games at the airport. She rode her snowmachine to Galena, a couple of hundred miles away. Her laugh was loud and contagious. She knew what to say to someone having a down day. And she helped with every event in the village, Walton said. "She was the person in charge of everything that went on here. She always stepped up and took that spot," her niece said.

Her large family in Anvik has lost an anchor. "She called herself Auntie No. 1, and she really was. She was our favorite," Walton said.

A potlatch will be held later in the week. More than 300 people are expected to gather from all around, said Helen Mwarey, school board secretary and registrar.

A LAST MESSAGE

The Evanses were about to start their first year as teachers and planned to share a position covering fourth through eighth grades. It's not known whether they will take on their teaching roles once they are healed but Hamilton said he hopes they do.

Chase, the pilot, ran his own air charter business in the 1970s and 1980s that operated in Grayling and Anvik. He made a run three times a week between McGrath and the villages, said his son-in-law, Thane Weythman.

"He had more time on that particular run than anyone else in the state of Alaska," Weythman said.

Weythman flew at daylight Sunday with Chase's daughter looking for the plane that had been overdue since Saturday night. By 7 a.m. they had picked up the signal from its emergency locator transmitter. He said he doesn't understand why rescuers took so long. The Alaska Air National Guard made it to the crash site around 11 a.m. Spokeswoman Kalei Rupp said they couldn't land a helicopter nearby. Some rescuers parachuted into a field from an HC-130, were hoisted up into the helicopter, then hoisted down to the crash site.

Late Friday, Walker posted on Facebook from McGrath, typing in messaging shorthand and referencing the weather that was delaying her return home.

"had an awesome evening, picking berries in the rain. never got so wet in a long time. reminded me of when we were young, running around and getting soaked, with no care in the world, sigh!" she posted at 11:23 p.m.

A friend commented on the berries. She replied that she was still in McGrath, then went on:

"hope to head home tomorrow, weather permitting. it seems weird to be saying that already and it's only Aug. sigh ..."