NTSB releases first official report in Ted Stevens' Alaska plane crash

Fifteen days after a private plane slammed into a mountainside near Dillingham, killing five people including the pilot and former U.S. Sen. Ted Stevens, the NTSB has published its first findings about the crash.

Most of the report -- relased late Tuesday night -- summarizes previously known information. The weather on Aug. 9 was marginal. The pilot, Terry Smith, called ahead to the group's intended destination -- a fish camp 52 miles to the southeast -- to say they were on their way, due to arrive by 3 p.m.. People became aware there was a problem when, at 6:15 p.m. that night, the GCI lodge from which the group had flown called the fish camp to ask whether guests would be back in time for dinner.

The fish camp reported the plane had never arrived. Calls by phone, radio and an aerial search shortly thereafter failed to immediately locate the plane. By 7 p.m., it was reported overdue to the FAA. A little more than an hour later, a volunteer search team located the wreckage in "steep, heavily wooded terrain, about 19 miles southeast" of the lodge. First responders -- all volunteers -- confirmed five people had died at the scene and that four people had survived, but with serious injuries. The weather deteriorated to the point where professional rescue crews were delayed until the next morning.

The report makes no mention of what may have caused the crash, but it does offer some insight into why no one was able to detect the plane's emergency locator transmitter. While the plane was equipped with the device -- an ARTEXME406 model -- it "had separated from its mounting bracket during impact, and the antenna cable was found separated from the ELT."

The preliminary report does not say whether the antenna separation eliminated the ELT's ability to transmit or whether the G-switch, a mechanism in the ELT designed to set it off automatically in a crash, had triggered. Further reports from the NTSB are expected.

G-switches have presented problems in the past because they thread a technically difficult line between G-forces. They must be set firm enough to avoid going off unnecessarily in hard landings, thus triggering unnecessary rescue efforts. But they must likewise be set soft enough to go off in crashes that people could survive.

Photos of the Aug. 9 crash

National Transportation Safety Board photos

Close up of aircraft wing and fuselage

Aerial view of the scene of the de Havilland Otter crash in the Muklng Hills near Dillingham.

Location of aircraft wreckage.

Contact Jill Burke at jill(at)alaskadispatch.com.