02 February 2015

NTSB Investigates Yet Another Mid-Air Crash

From the Alaska Dispatch News:

As federal investigators sort through the wreckage of a midair plane crash in Mat-Su on Saturday that injured a wildlife trooper and another pilot, attention is turning to the role radio communications may have played in the collision.

On Sunday, Alaska State Troopers identified the pilots involved in Saturday’s crash as Levi Duell, 35, of Anchorage and Jeffry Bara, 52, of Eagle River.

Duell and Bara were flying Piper PA-18 Super Cub airplanes when they collided southwest of Wasilla on Saturday afternoon. Both pilots were taken to area hospitals. Medics described Bara’s injuries as critical. AST spokeswoman Megan Peters said both men remained hospitalized as of Sunday.

Federal investigators spent Sunday at the crash site, a patch of woods near a private airstrip near Knik-Goose Bay Road and Vine Road, cataloging wreckage, said Clint Johnson of the National Transportation Safety Board.

The wreckage of a Super Cub rests in the woods near Sunset Rd, off of Knik-Goose Bay Rd in Wasilla on Saturday, January 31, 2015. The pilot, who collided mid-air with an Alaska State Trooper Super Cub, was life-flighted to Providence hospital in Anchorage. The pilot of the other airplane was taken by ambulance to Mat-Su Regional Hospital. | Loren Holmes / ADN


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2 comments:

Cathy said...

I have a female cousin-in-law who's landed her aircraft in all lower 48. I guess I don't need to ask her why she hasn't attempted Alaska, yet :(

Rev. Paul said...

Cathy - in addition to the weather conditions, thermals, mountains, and visibility issues, there's also the distance involved. She'd have to fly through Canada to get here.