NTSB releases first report into deadly plane crash near Ketchikan

ANCHORAGE, Alaska (KTUU) -The flightseeing plane that crashed in Misty Fjords National Monument Wilderness on Aug. 5 struck a tree first. That’s new information released in the National Transportation Safety Board’s preliminary report.

The report also found that other pilots reported low cloud cover in the area the same day the plane crashed, killing all six people onboard it.

Related: NTSB plans to start wreckage recovery Sunday following the deadly plane crash near Ketchikan

“It’s basically who, what, when, where,” NTSB Alaska Chief Clint Johnson said when he discussed the report. “It gives a better picture of the weather conditions at Ketchikan at the departure time. And the timeline as far as the tour goes.”

Southeast Aviation operated the flight that carried five passengers and a pilot. It went down on its way back to Ketchikan.

“The weather in Ketchikan was flyable at that point,” Johnson said. “But unfortunately, at the accident site, vastly different. Low ceilings, and considerably different from what was being reported in Ketchikan.”

It was previously reported that bad weather at the crash scene hampered recovery efforts for about a week.

Meanwhile, it’s too early to speculate on what went wrong.

“We’re in the formative stages right now, man, machine, environment,” Johnson said. “Processes of elimination at this point right now, all three of those options are on the table. Nothing has been eliminated.”

Johnson said it will take at least a year before we know the cause of the crash.

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