BETHEL -- A preliminary report released Wednesday morning on last week's Knik Arm plane crash says that when the pilot called for help, he told troopers he was too far from shore to swim to safety.
The report by the National Transportation Safety Board says the weather was clear the night of Aug. 6 around Birchwood Airport in Chugiak and doesn't suggest a possible cause of the crash. Both pilot Seth Fairbanks, 28, and passenger Anthony Hooper, 23, remain missing and are presumed dead.
The investigation is in early stages, and it will be 10 months to a year before the factual report on what happened is complete, said NTSB investigator Shaun Williams.
The pilot radioed at 9:11 p.m. Aug. 6 that he was taking off from the McGrath airstrip, the NTSB report said. He didn't file a flight plan. His family and friends say he was headed to Anchorage for a family wedding reception and was planning to land at the Birchwood Airport.
At 11:54 p.m., Fairbanks called troopers for help, saying he had crashed in Knik Arm and was standing on top of his plane. The new NTSB report describes it as a 911 call but troopers said Tuesday it is not yet known what number he called. The call for help went first to the Bethel trooper post, then was auto-routed to Fairbanks. Nine minutes passed before troopers contacted the Alaska National Guard's Rescue Coordination Center.
Two guard C-17s already in the air on a training mission were diverted. They made it to the scene by 12:16 a.m. on Friday, the NTSB said. But by then, it was nearly high tide. Searchers couldn't find the plane for hours. Visibility often is less than 1 foot in the turbid, glacier-fed waters of Knik Arm, the NTSB said.
Early Friday morning, around low tide, searchers in an Alaska National Guard helicopter spotted the plane. It was upside down and mostly submerged in the salty water, about 1.8 miles northwest of the airport. It was lifted out of Knik Arm by helicopter Saturday morning.
The wings fractured and folded during the lift, damage that will make the investigation more challenging, Williams said.
"Due to the amount of water and organic material contained within the airplane after being submerged through several tide cycles, the airframe structure could not support the additional weight," the report said.
A handheld GPS unit was mounted to the instrument panel, with all cables still attached. It was removed and sent to an NTSB lab in Washington, D.C., for downloading of any data. The GPS unit, if it was updated frequently and not too heavily damaged by salt water, could reveal the flight path, Williams said.
NTSB will work with the manufacturers on a detailed examination of the wreckage and engine. The work is urgent because of the plane's long exposure to salt water, he said.
The investigation also will look at the emergency response, according to the NTSB.
The Alaska National Guard, the U.S. Air Force, Alaska State Troopers and the Civil Air Patrol all participated in the search, with help from the Coast Guard, the NTSB said. Friends and family members of Fairbanks also have been searching.