Report: Pilot likely crashed into Inlet

WASILLA — A report issued Wednesday sheds new light on the National Transportation Safety Board view that a Wasilla pilot missing since October 2012 likely crashed into Cook Inlet and died.

The NTSB report is based on weather and radar data, as well as interviews with Alaska State Troopers and various people who were among the last to see Brendan Mattingley, 27, alive.

“The student pilot, who was also the airplane owner, is presumed to have received fatal injuries and the airplane is presumed to have been destroyed,” the NTSB report states.

According to the report, a longtime friend of Mattingley’s wrote in a statement to the NTSB that he and his friend had flown to Soldotna from the Wolf Lake airport. Upon landing, they took in a local hockey game, then met up with a group of friends to go to some local bars.

“Just after midnight on Oct. 13, his friend was asked by security personnel to leave the bar, so he walked his friend to an awaiting taxicab. He reported that, once his friend was in the taxicab, he instructed the driver to take him to a local hotel, and that was the last time he saw him,” the report states.

Investigators also talked to the cab driver who told them Mattingley asked to be taken back to the bar, then insisted on going to the Soldotna airport.

“The taxicab driver reluctantly agreed to take him to the airport, and when he asked the man about his intentions, the pilot reported that he was going to sleep in the airplane, something he had done many times before,” the report states.

The cab driver said Mattingley appeared drunk when he left him there. At the time of his disappearance, his family said risking his plane and his life by flying intoxicated would have been well out of character for Mattingley, so frugal and careful was he with his plane.

But the NTSB report says that not more than two hours after being dropped off, Mattingley flew away from the airport. The U.S. Air Force maintains a Radar Evaluation Squadron that, after reviewing the date, found a plane the NTSB believes was Mattingley’s leaving Soldotna.

The plane “initially proceeded southeast of the airport before it turned and flew west, then northeast, before making a series of erratic turns, along with several changes in speed, heading and altitude,” according to the report. “The last position of the radar target was recorded about 2:48 a.m., roughly mid-channel, while in a descent over the Cook Inlet, about 30 miles north of Soldotna.”

A week’s worth of searching with state resources and the U.S. Coast Guard failed to find him. After the official search was suspended, private pilots continued to look for Mattingley, gathering together online through use of a Facebook page dedicated to the search.

By November 2012, posts to that page had largely taken the form of memorials to Mattingley.

“It’s hard to believe it has already been a month! May you Rest In Peace Brendan! We miss you!” read one from the page’s administrator in November.

According to the page, his family and friends held a memorial for him just a few days after Christmas.

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