Investigation of plane crash begins
Four skydivers - one from Kalispell - and pilot were killed Saturday near Marion
Federal investigators began inspecting the wreckage from a Saturday skydiving plane crash that killed five people, including a Kalispell man.
The wreckage - just south of Skydive Lost Prairie's runway - was moved to a nearby hangar Sunday for an estimated two days of preliminary investigations.
After a preliminary report this week, subsequent investigations, reviews and conclusions are expected to take nine months, said Tom Little, an aviation safety investigator from the Seattle office of the National Transportation Safety Board.
The Federal Aviation Administration, Cessna Aircraft Co. and Teledyne Continental Motors Inc. also had investigators at the scene Sunday to help the transportation board. The crashed plane was a Cessna 182-C, which had a Teledyne engine.
Authorities have not officially released the names of the five people who died.
However, Buffalo Hill Funeral Home and Crematory is taking care of funeral arrangements for two of the victims: Joel Atkinson, 25, of Kalispell and David Mach Landeck Jr., 25, of Missoula. Efforts to locate members of Aktinson's family Sunday were not successful.
Atkinson and Landeck were expert parachutists who were scheduled Saturday to tandem jump with two student parachutists from Great Falls. In tandem jumping, a person is connected to an expert parachutist and they skydive as a pair with one parachute.
The crash occurred at Skydive Lost Prairie's airfield four miles north of McGregor Lake and 32 miles west of Kalispell at about 10:10 a.m. during calm, sunny weather.
The Skydive Lost Prairie plane carried a pilot with more than 500 hours of flying time who joined the company 10 days earlier, Atkinson, Landeck and the two novices.
The plane lifted off the northern end of the hardtop runway, and then immediately circled and appeared to be trying to land at the runway's southern end, said Flathead County Undersheriff Pete Wingert on Saturday and Little on Sunday.
The plane crashed about 150 feet short of the runway. It burned on impact - destroying the wings and front, and leaving a banged-up tail section.
Investigators have no preliminary idea why the crash occurred, Little said.
All of the plane's pieces were found at the grassy crash site, which tentatively downplays the possibility of something falling off during liftoff or the circling, Little said. The plane never climbed more than a few hundred feet into the sky.
"We're kind of numb. It's been like a family," said Mike Morrill, Skydive Lost Prairie manager, on Sunday.
Skydive Lost Prairie has been in business since 1973, according to it Web site. It still has two operational airplanes.