ANCHORAGE, Alaska — The effort to determine the cause of a plane crash that killed former Alaska Sen. Ted Stevens and four others was slowed Thursday by bad weather that shrouded the crash site and by the extent of the injuries to those who survived it.
“We are working to interview the survivors now,” said Deborah A.P. Hersman, chairman of the National Transportation Safety Board. “We’ve got folks at the hospital trying to make contact with them. We’ve got to understand why they can’t talk.”
The four survivors, all from the Washington area, remained hospitalized Thursday in Anchorage’s Providence Hospital. Hersman did not provide details of their emotional or physical states but said members of her team were awaiting clearance from doctors to begin interviews.
As investigators gathered information from other sources, they pieced together a new timeline of the fatal hillside crash Monday of the 53-year- old DeHavilland floatplane.
Initial reports had suggested the plane went down while returning to a lodge after a day of salmon fishing. Now investigators think it crashed in the early afternoon while bound from the lodge to a fishing camp about 50 miles away.
“We believe the crash occurred 15 to 20 minutes after takeoff from the lodge,” Hersman said.
One potential culprit is Alaska’s volatile summer weather. Knowing just when the plane crashed will allow investigators to match conditions to the moment of impact.
