NTSB: Plane’s wing failed before deadly crash near Anchor Point

A fatal plane crash near Anchor Point earlier this month occurred after the wing of the Piper PA-18 Super Cub failed, sending the plane spinning into trees and brush along the Sterling Highway, according to a new report released Wednesday by the National Transportation Safety Board.

The Dec. 8 crash, captured by a passing vehicle’s dashboard camera, killed pilot Kurt St. Jean and left his passenger seriously injured. She passed away this week.

St. Jean, 52, was flying with his partner Kristen Fenske when the crash occurred, their friends and family have written online.

The couple took off from a private airstrip on Pike Lake near King Salmon around 11:30 a.m. and planned to head northeast toward Chinitna Bay and cross the Cook Inlet to Anchor Point before turning southeast for Homer, according to the preliminary investigation report issued by the safety board.

A witness heard the plane’s engine RPMs increase and saw the plane “inverted and spinning in a nose-low attitude towards the ground,” the report said.

The crash footage captured by the dash camera is a key part of the investigation, said Clint Johnson, chief of the board’s Alaska office.

As the plane descended, the “left wing was folded against the fuselage,” the report said. It wasn’t immediately clear what caused the wing to fail, Johnson said.

Federal investigators traveled to the scene a day after the crash and found the left wing partially attached to the body of the plane, which was twisted and damaged from the impact, the report said.

The wreckage was recovered in the following days and is now in Wasilla, where a team will conduct a more detailed examination, Johnson said. The team, which includes a senior structures aeronautical engineer, will try to figure out where the origination point of the wing failure was, he said.

St. Jean died at the scene and Fenske was transported to the Homer hospital before she was taken to Providence Alaska Medical Center for more intensive care, according to an online fundraiser started to support her medical bills.

St. Jean moved to Homer after graduating college in San Diego, his obituary said. He was was a commercial and sport fisherman, boat captain, carpenter, real estate investor, hunter and pilot, it said.

Fenske had been hospitalized since the crash and died Wednesday morning, according to online updates about her care.

The NTSB investigation is ongoing, Johnson said. The agency generally aims to have a final report concluded within a year after the crash, he said.

Investigators are looking to talk with additional witnesses and Johnson asked anyone who may have seen the crash to contact them at witness@ntsb.gov.

Editor’s note: This story has been updated to reflect that Kristen Fenske passed away Wednesday.