Witness reports hearing plane engine ‘call for power’ before crashing south of McGrath, NTSB report says

The National Transportation Safety Board on Wednesday released preliminary reports that provided new details about two separate fatal aviation crashes that happened in the past two weeks near King Salmon and McGrath.

Witnesses saw the moments leading up to the crash or the wreckage in the immediate aftermath in both incidents, the reports said.

Around 9:30 a.m. on Aug. 31, a pilot was flying a Piper PA-18 from a remote hunting camp south of McGrath to a 2,500-foot-elevation ridge about 2 1/2 miles away to drop supplies off to a hunting guide when he crashed, the NTSB preliminary report said. The pilot — identified by Alaska State Troopers as 58-year-old Anchorage resident Cary Foster — planned to fly to McGrath for fuel afterward, the report said.

Foster had landed on the ridge “many times over the years, but this was the first landing of the season,” the preliminary report said.

The hunting guide watched Foster fly over the camp several times before heading farther up the ridge and doing “several slow and low passes of the ridge in an X pattern likely trying to determine wind and landing conditions,” the report said.

There were roughly 15 mph northeast winds reported at the time of the crash. Clint Johnson, chief of the NTSB’s Alaska Office, said winds in mountainous areas can be unpredictable and challenging to navigate because of varying pockets of turbulence and downdrafts.

The plane was beginning a right turn to the northeast that the guide said he believed was its final turn when the aircraft disappeared from sight, the report said.

The guide reported he heard the “engine call for a lot of power twice and about 30 seconds later he heard the airplane impact the ground,” the report said.

The guide found Foster unconscious and he died shortly afterward, the report said. The Alaska Air National Guard arrived at the scene by helicopter later in the day, troopers said.

The wreckage was found with its nose down, with the tail nearly straight in the air, according to a photo included in the report. The wreckage was recovered from the scene and is being stored in a hangar in the Mat-Su so that investigators can examine it and look for any mechanical issues that may have contributed to the crash, Johnson said.

“Right now we only have a couple of pieces of the puzzle and we’re hoping to get all the pieces before we start putting this thing together. So we’re still in the gathering stage,” Johnson said.

Helicopter crash at Naknek River

In the other recent fatal aviation crash, the NTSB’s preliminary report said there was limited visibility when an Egli Air Haul pilot flew four passengers in a Bell 206B helicopter to a sport fishing camp south of the King Salmon Airport on Saturday morning. Visibility was roughly a quarter-mile and the pilot had been granted a special visual flight rules clearance to depart the airport to the south, the report said.

Shortly after the Bell 206B took off, the control tower received a report that a helicopter had crashed into the Naknek River near Grassy Point, roughly a quarter-mile away. The control tower was unable to reach the helicopter pilot again, the report said.

Emergency responders and good Samaritans got the occupants of the helicopter out of the water before Alaska State Troopers or Wildlife Troopers made it to the scene, the agencies said in a statement. One of the passengers, 73-year-old Martin de Laureal of Louisiana, was killed in the crash, troopers said. The other occupants had minor injuries, the report said.

During a brief interview after the crash, the pilot told an NTSB investigator he remembered “encountering an area of dense fog while flying over the very calm water of the Naknek River and he subsequently lost all visual reference, and the helicopter struck the surface of the river.”

Johnson said the wreckage has been recovered and is being stored in King Salmon.

The NTSB expects to complete a final investigative report within a year, he said.