BUTTE, Mont. — Investigators said Tuesday that a pilot’s change of course shortly before his plane nose-dived into a Butte cemetery, killing all 14 aboard, has emerged as a potentially crucial factor in the crash.
Flying at 25,000 feet, pilot Buddy Summerfield requested the diversion from Bozeman to Butte half an hour before the single-engine Pilatus PC-12 crashed at the edge of Butte’s airport Sunday. Seven children under the age of 10 were among the victims.
National Transportation Safety Board acting chairman Mark Rosenker says why the plane diverted is at the forefront of the investigation.
Summerfield said nothing to controllers to indicate he was having trouble, and did not say why he was changing course from Bozeman to Butte, about 75 miles away.
Rosenker also revealed that the plane’s landing gear was down but its wing flaps were up at the time of the crash. That’s unusual for a landing aircraft but not unheard of, said the investigator in charge of the accident, Dennis Hogenson.
Also under scrutiny are weather conditions that could have caused icing on the plane’s wings and possible overloading.
The plane was configured to seat just 10 people, but the fact that several of the 14 passengers were small children has dampened speculation that excess weight was a factor.
The investigation has been hampered by the lack of a cockpit voice recorder or data recorder, which were not required on the private flight.
