Investigators with the National Transportation Safety Board say that a plane that crashed on April 20 killing four people aboard hit a bald eagle before it crashed.
Shaun Williams, who is leading the investigation, says samples of an unknown substance found on the tail of the Cessna 172 were sent to Washington, DC for analysis.
"Wreckage examination, after it was retrieved from the accident site, a foreign substance was found on the tail, or the tail section of the airplane. So we took samples of that and sent it to the Smithsonian Institute in Washington DC for further analysis. After a forensic analysis of the substance, it was determined to be from a bald eagle."
The plane crashed in thick woods about two miles from the Birchwood airport North of Anchorage. An early NTSB report on the accident indicated the plane hit a 100 foot spruce tree, and burst into flames on impact with the ground. The fire consumed much of the wreckage. Williams says the new information is not to be considered conclusive evidence that the bird strike was the cause of the crash.
" The factual report will be released in ten to twelve months, with the probable cause about 30 to 60 days following that. Right now, what we have, is the material, the substance that was found on the aircraft. Now we are going to go back and try to find out what cause or what effect that would have had on the accident sequence or on the aircraft itself."]
A preliminary report on the accident was released by the NTSB on April 27.
Pilot George Kobelnyk, age 64 and a former NTSB investigator, and three others, Christian Bohrer, 20, Sarah Glaves, 36 and Kyle Braun, 27, died in the crash.