NTSB Crash Probe Focusing on Weight, Balance of Downed Plane

As a stunned and saddened community here struggles to deal with the deaths of two Greenville families, federal investigators in Alaska continue their exhaustive probe into what caused the plane crash that claimed their lives.

Experts from the National Transportation Safety Board said they were studying maintenance records and interviewing friends and family of the pilot to reconstruct the 72 hours leading up to the accident that killed all nine members of the Antonakos and McManus families of Greenville along with pilot Walter Rediske on Sunday in Soldotna, Alaska.

NTSB board member Earl Weener said investigators are focusing attention on the weight and balance of the plane, which was loaded with the nine passengers, baggage and some supplies for a planned trip to a remote bear viewing lodge on the Alaska Peninsula, the Anchorage Daily News reported.

An aviation expert told Patch earlier this week that such factors likely would be key to ultimately determining the cause of the crash, the worst crash in Alaska in years.

Lacking eyewitnesses or video surveillance, the NTSB team said it is hoping the wreckage and records will offer clues as to what brought the plane down. No radio traffic of the moments leading up to the crash was recorded because the small Soldotna airport doesn't have a control tower, said NTSB spokesman Peter Knudson.

Meanwhile, the plane's engine has been sent to Honeywell, its manufacturer, for analysis, Weener said.

According to the newspaper report, the investigators said they know the pilot himself loaded the plane with nine passengers and their baggage for an overnight stay at Bear Mountain Lodge. Weener said Rediske was also carrying food and supplies to the lodge, though how much that had been loaded was uncertain.

NTSB investigators will spend several more days in Soldotna before returning to Washington, D.C., and Weener said some pieces of the plane may likely be sent to the NTSB's lab there for further analysis.

"We're still really at the beginning of our investigation," Weener said at a Wednesday press conference, adding that a preliminary report on the cause of the crash could come within the next 30 days.

Meantime, Rediske's fellow pilots lauded him and his company, hailing Rediske's two decades-old business a "top notch," according to a report from the Alaska Dispatch.

“It’s a top-notch outfit, top-notch pilots, maintenance is top notch — super, actually,” Jim Herrick, of Nikiski, a pilot and 60-year certified aviation mechanic, told the Dispatch. “Everything there is No. 1. The way the maintenance is done — it’s done right to the letter, and there’s all kinds of good pilots there. Willy was a fantastic pilot.”

“I believe he was pretty careful, he ran a good business and was a really good man, and that’s a sad thing," said Kelli Brewer, of rival Alaska West Air. "You hate to see that happen to good people.”