Authorities continue to investigate fatal crash, death of Wasilla man

WASILLA — Authorities continue to investigate a midair collision that led to the death of a Wasilla man Wednesday afternoon.

James Poelman, 56, of Wasilla, died after his Cessna 207 collided with another plane, piloted by Bruce Markwood, 53, of Anchorage. The collision occurred near the mouth of the Susitna River, where the Cessna 207 was still in the water, as of Friday.

Poelman was flying for Spernak Airways out of Anchorage at the time of the crash.

“Great guy. He’s done a lot of wonderful things,” Mike Spernak, of Spernak Airways, said.

Poelman was flying from Merrill Field to Tyonek, a village on the west side of the Cook Inlet, when his plane collided with Markwood’s Cessna 175.

Markwood made an emergency landing at Lake Hood with only one wheel and had to slide the plane on its belly until it came to a stop, according to NTSB. Markwood was not injured and is not charged with any crimes in the connection to the collision that took Poelman’s life.

The National Transportation Safety Board investigation is ongoing. The NTSB has not yet retrieved the wreckage of the Cessna 207 from the Big Su, but is working toward safely retrieving the wreckage and determining what happened.

“We do know that there is a lot of air traffic in that area and we’re looking into whether the sun or what factors contributed to the inability for them to see each other,” said NTSB Senior Aircraft Investigator Brice Banning.

Air Traffic Controller investigators are also working to gather radar data and what frequencies the pilots may have been on, or if there was any communication, according to Banning. The collision occurred at 12:13 p.m. on Wednesday.

“Once we complete the recovery we’ll do a wreckage layout and we’ll look for paint transfer or crush angles and go over the wreckage and try and determine exactly why they came together… We’re actively working to retrieve it as soon as possible. It’s imperative that we get it out as soon as we can do it safely so we can use that wreckage,” said Banning.

Investigation will not be complete for about a year, Banning said.

Contact Mat-Su Valley Frontiersman reporter Tim Rockey at tim.rockey@frontiersman.com.