Photos: Federal investigation into deadly Alaska plane crash begins

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NTSB team at the Rediske Air crash site in Soldotna, Alaska.

An airplane crash in Alaska over the Fourth of July weekend has reverberated across the country, with two families from South Carolina and a longtime Alaska pilot and plane charter service owner counted among the victims in one of the deadliest aviation accidents in decades.

There were more questions than answers on July 8 as a federal team of transportation crash investigators from Washington, D.C. arrived to launch an inquiry into what caused the turbine de Havilland Otter flown by Nikiski, Alaska-based pilot Walter "Willie" Rediske to crash and explode almost immediately on Sunday, July 7 at approximately 11:20 a.m. No one had come forward as an eyewitness to the crash and there appeared to be no one at the Soldotna Municipal Airport at the time the Otter erupted into flames seen above the treeline surrounding the airport, leaving the National Transportation Safety Board (NTSB) "Go Team" to determine whether the flight was arriving or departing, NTSB on-scene board member Earl Weener.

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