Inquiry reveals 'no surprises'

The sun was shining and the wind calm last May when a single-engine Cessna carrying a pilot and four skydivers took off from the northern end of Skydive Lost Prairie's hardtop runway.

Almost immediately, the pilot attempted to circle back for a precautionary landing.

"I looked up to see him approaching [the runway] on his base leg, too low to make a safe turn to final," one witness, who was sitting in the living room of a nearby home, told investigators. "He was approaching perpendicular to the runway, just to the south of it, at what appeared to be about 50 to 100 feet above ground level. I continued to watch him as the aircraft rocked slightly, then appeared to take a sharp left turn causing the nose to dive downward, left wing slightly dipped, and plummet to the ground."

Another witness put the plane at between 300 and 500 feet above the ground. As it approached the end of the runway, "it banked steeply and went in," the witness said.

The plane crashed 345 feet south of the runway's approach end, only five minutes after its 10:15 a.m. takeoff.

All five people on board were killed.

The witness reports are included in the National Transportation Safety Board factual report released Thursday.

"There were no surprises for me in that report at all," said Gail Linne, the mother of Joel Atkinson, one of the crash victims. She said Friday that she hadn't believed the investigation would reveal negligence or mechanical problems.

"It's still a mystery as to why the accident occurred."

A final report identifying the cause of the crash is expected to be completed in about a month.

According to the National Transportation Safety Board, the investigation revealed no anomalies that would have precluded normal operation of either the airframe or the engine.

One witness recalled that prior to departing on the first flight of the day, pilot Troy Norling, 28, of Onalaska, Wis., checked the oil and fuel levels in the plane.

The witness watched Norling add 25 gallons of fuel, sump the tanks, check the oil dipstick - but not add any more oil or remove the oil filler cap - and then take off.

"I heard the airplane turn around, which was not normal," the witness said. "I looked outside and saw the airplane flying to the south. I went back to the portable radio to talk to the pilot when another witness informed me the plane had crashed."

Norling, who had moved to Flathead County in response to an Internet advertisement to become Lost Prairie's only full-time pilot among a group of part-time pilots hired for the skydiving school's busy season, had more than 500 hours of flight time.

An autopsy conducted at the Montana state crime lab determined Norling died of blunt-force injuries. Federal Aviation Administration toxicology tests on the pilot were negative for carbon monoxide, cyanide and ethanol.

After the plane crashed, the cabin and cockpit were consumed by a fire. Both wings had been shorn off, but the tail cone was largely intact.

The plane's single seat was nowhere to be found.

Investigators could not determine the position of the flaps after the impact, but found evidence indicating the trim on the horizontal stabilizer was set to the takeoff position.

Portions of the oil system - which witnesses said Norling had not touched prior to takeoff - were studied, but authorities found no oil residue on pieces of the windshield or other engine parts.

The plane was about 165 pounds over maximum weight, and the center of gravity was toward the rear of the plane at the time of the accident, the report said.

"It doesn't mean that they cannot fly if it's a few pounds over," said Debra Eckrote, regional director for the NTSB in Seattle. "It's just something that we note in the investigation. The center of gravity is what is more important in the accident sequence. In this particular case, he was still within the envelope [and] he was just slightly over gross weight."

Instructors Atkinson, 25, of Whitefish and David Landeck Jr., 25, of Missoula had been scheduled to make a tandem jump with novice skydivers and sweethearts Kyle Mills, 31, and Jenny Sengpiel, 25 [who were musicians in the Great Falls Symphony Orchestra], when the plane went down.

Atkinson was an accomplished parachutist and skydiving was his passion, according to his family.

"There's simply no way to describe the complete joy he found there," Linne said of Lost Prairie. "He was a very bright person and skydiving gave him something to strive for."

Atkinson, who delivered pizzas when he wasn't jumping out of airplanes, started skydiving in his teens.

"We're grateful for the time we had with him. If he had to leave I'm glad he took his last flight over Lost Prairie," said Linne, adding that she was mindful of the pain the other victims' families were suffering.

Fred Sand, owner of Skydive Lost Prairie, said he would wait to see the final report.

"Because the probable cause hasn't been released, anything that anybody says is still speculation," Sand said. "It's still absolutely a mystery to me as to why this all happened."

The National Transportation Safety Board, the Federal Aviation Administration, Cessna Aircraft Co. and Teledyne Continental Motors Inc. investigated the accident. The crashed plane was a Cessna 182-C, which had a Teledyne engine.

The Associated Press contributed to this story.

Reporter Nicholas Ledden can be reached at 758-4441 or by e-mail at nledden@dailyinterlake.com