Report details moments prior to fatal plane crash

WASILLA — The National Transportation Safety Board report of a midair collision between the Cessna 175 piloted by Bruce Markwood and James Poelman, flying a Cessna 207 20 miles west of Anchorage near the mouth of the Big Susitna River, revealed that Markwood saw two shadows converging seconds before the crash that resulted in the death of Poelman, 56-year-old Wasilla resident flying for Spernak Air.

A minute before the accident at 12:03 p.m. on June 13, Markwood, 53, was communicating with a Piper Super Cub, according to the report, that flew in the opposite direction. Markwood had maintained an altitude of about 1,000 feet. As the Super Cub flew underneath him, he saw the shadow of his own plane intersecting with another. He immediately attempted to gain altitude, but it was too late, the report stated.

Poelman’s Cessna 207 fell without control into the mouth of the Susitna River, according to the report. Poelman began to descend from 874 mean sea level and then climbed to 900 ft just before the plane’s track disappeared at 12:05 p.m.

“Alarmed, he looked forward and saw the spinner of a converging airplane in his windscreen, and he said that he immediately pulled aft on the control yoke,” Brice Banning, of the NTSB, wrote.

Markwood departed a remote fish camp at 11:26 a.m. and headed to Lake Hood with no flight plan. Following the collision, Markwood circled the area to view the wreckage and check for survivors. He marked the location and enlisted the help of pilots in the area to search for survivors, according to NTSB.

“A good Samaritan pilot in an airplane responded to his distress calls, flew alongside his damaged airplane, provided him with a damage report, and escorted him back to [Lake Hood]. A second good Samaritan pilot in a float-equipped airplane heard multiple distress calls and emergency personnel communications, landed on the river near the partially submerged wreckage, and confirmed that the pilot was deceased,” Banning wrote.

Markwood’s Cessna 175 sustained damage during the collision and subsequent landing at Lake Hood. He landed on runway 32, a 2,200-foot long gravel covered runway and immediately spoke to two NTSB representatives.

Markwood’s left main landing gear and nosewheel were separated and missing. The right landing gear tire was cut from Poelman’s propeller, and the 175 had red paint transferred to the outboard portion of the right elevator from the 207.

“The airplane sustained substantial damage to the fuselage and right elevator,” Banning wrote.

On the east bank of the Big Susitna River, about 1,380 feet east of the main wreckage of Poelman’s 207, investigators found the left main gear leg with the wheel attached and other wreckage from the 175.

The Cessna 175's left main gear leg with the wheel attached, as well as other wreckage debris, was found on the east bank of the river about 1,380 ft east of the Cessna 207's main wreckage.

NTSB’s final assessment of the crash may take a year to complete.

Contact Frontiersman reporter Tim Rockey at tim.rockey@frontiersman.com.