Three people are dead after two separate plane crashes in two days in Southcentral Alaska.
The first crash happened Friday morning. According to state troopers, a rescue team from the Alaska Rescue Coordination Center found a single-engine Champion 7GCBC plane near Tustumena Lake on the Kenai Peninsula. The pilot, 70-year-old Danny Presley of Happy Valley, and sole passenger, 58-year-old Keith Presley of Ninilchik, were found dead.
Clint Johnson is the National Transportation Safety Board’s Alaska chief. He said they’ve done an on-scene investigation, but more work needs to be done before they can take a closer look at the wreckage to try to determine what caused the crash.
“We are now in a state of trying to get that wreckage out of there, with the help the family, and also helicopter operator, [we] need to be able to get that wreckage back to a better area so we can take a look at it in a much more controlled environment,” Johnson said.
He said the safety board doesn’t know the plane’s origin or intended destination.
The following day, Wasilla’s emergency dispatch received multiple reports of a plane crash in the city, according to state troopers.
Johnson says the plane flew out of Anderson Lake Airport before crashing in a residential neighborhood and catching on fire.
The pilot, 71-year-old Jon Bergstedt of Anchorage was found dead.
His plane was a modified model of a Piper PA-12, a common aircraft flown in the state. Johnson said this was its first flight after the build up.
“We’re going to be looking at the maintenance record, the assembly records on this and try to figure out what happened here,” he said.
He said witnesses also heard what sounded like a loss of engine power before the crash.
Johnson expects preliminary reports on both crashes to come out in the next week.
Also last weekend, in St. Mary’s in Southwest Alaska, there was a plane crash late Sunday that killed all four people on board.
