NTSB crash reports point to pilot error

MAT-SU — The National Transportation safety board has determined that a pair of plane crashed that claimed the lives of two Big Lake pilots last fall were caused by pilot error.

The crashes in question happened Aug. 30 and Sept. 9 during hunting season.

The first crash took the life of pilot and well-known Big Lake resident Scott Mueller. Mueller had been flying as part of a hunting trip and was taking off from the Tatina airport near Nikolai — a well-known Iditarod checkpoint — when his Super Cub went down.

The second crash happened 4 miles northwest of Big Lake. The pilot killed in that case was Kenneth Whedbee, 66, who crashed while flying a homebuilt aircraft. A passenger, Jason Scott, also survived that crash.

Whedbee was reportedly looking for bear when he went down.

Though the NTSB hasn’t yet officially made a ruling as to what caused the crash, the so-called “probable cause determination” is the last step before that happens. It is a statement of what the NTSB thinks happened.

In the case of Mueller, the probable cause statement reads:

“The pilot’s improper decision to load the airplane beyond its allowable takeoff weight and center of gravity limits, which resulted in a loss of control during the initial climb. Contributing to the accident was the external load and the downwind takeoff.”

Essentially, the NTSB said, the plane had too much weight. Between the 500 pounds of caribou meat, fuel and two passengers it just couldn’t stay aloft. The NTSB also noted that antlers had been lashed to the outside of the plane, which the Federal Aviation Administration has warned against.

“It has been reported that on some aircraft, antlers secured to the wing struts can cause a significant air flow disturbance to the tail surfaces,” the NTSB wrote in a previous report on Mueller’s crash.

In the case of Whedbee’s crash, the NTSB states the cause of the crash was, “The pilot’s failure to maintain adequate airspeed while maneuvering at a low altitude, which resulted in a stall and subsequent spin from which he could not recover.”

The NTSB writes that the plane crashed nearly vertically, meaning it was very likely to have stalled. Investigators also tested Whedbee’s engine and found it to be in working order, which also is an indicator that the plane stalled prior to the crash.

Contact Andrew Wellner at 352-2270 or andrew.wellner@frontiersman.com.