Between recent plane crashes in Ketchikan, Juneau, and Trapper Creek the National Transportation Safety Board’s investigators are spread thin.
NTSB Investigator Clint Johnson said as far as the prevalence of crashes, this year is not above normal.
Johnson: “Keep in mind last year we had a very slow year, and obviously when our office is very slow that’s a good thing. So last year we saw a remarkable drop in the accident numbers, however this year it’s pretty much par for the course if you look over the last five years or so. We have a little down-tick as far as the number of accidents on an annual basis but last year was remarkably low.”
The Ketchikan plane crash which killed all nine passengers on June 25 currently has four of NSTB’s five crash investigators assigned to it.
Today crews began recovering the wreckage of a Cessna 207 that crashed west of Juneau last Friday; that crash killed the pilot, put two passengers in serious condition and two other passengers in a Juneau hospital in stable condition.
Over the weekend a man flying over his daughter’s wedding in Trapper Creek died when his landing gear struck a tree. Investigators are scheduled to visit that site today.
Johnson said all three crash investigations are still very preliminary.
Johnson: “We actually look at each one of these accidents on a case by case basis. Obviously if there’s a trend, whether it’s technology or weather or something like that we’ll take that into account but again at this early stage of each of these accidents, each one is investigated separately.”
A pilot taking of from a lake near Wasilla swam to shore around 9:30 this morning after his plane flipped and sank on the lake.