Federal Investigators Probing Alaska Plane Crash That Killed 10
Single-engine aircraft was engulfed in flames when firefighters arrived.
July 8, 2013— -- An investigative team from the National Transportation Safety Board is expected to arrive in Soldotna, Alaska, today to begin a probe into what caused a single-engine propeller plane to crash over the weekend, killing all 10 people on board.
The charred wreckage of a de Havilland DHC3 Otter remained on the runway at Soldotna Municipal Airport today, about 75 miles southwest of Anchorage, awaiting the arrival of the NTSB team.
The plane was believed to have been taking off from the airport Sunday morning when it became engulfed in flames, Roy Browning, deputy chief of Central Elemergency Services in Soldotna, told ABCNews.com.
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Browning said a team of firefighters was on the scene within minutes, but by the time they had extinguished the flames, everyone on board had been killed.
The pilot was identified as Walter Rediske, the owner of Rediske Air, an air charter service in Nikiski, according to the Anchorage Daily News.
A person who answered the phone at a number listed for Rediske Air declined to comment and cited the pending NTSB investigation into the crash.
The names of the deceased have not been released, and it was not immediately known where they were going or coming from, Eric Weiss, a spokesman for the NTSB, told ABCNews.com.
Browning said Soldotna is a popular spot for tourists.
"We have lots of lakes in the surrounding area," he said. "There is obviously a lot of sighseeing and fishing and hunting lodges, but they could have been commuting to another town."
The crash came just one day after Asiana Airlines Flight 214 crashed at San Francisco International Airport. The tail was torn off on impact and the plane burst into flames.
The crash of the Boeing 777 resulted in two deaths and 181 people were injured. Forty-nine patients were still hospitalized today and eight patients remained in critical condition.
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