Report on 2019 plane crash that killed 3 Indiana men delayed

EVANSVILLE, Ind. (AP) — Two years after a plane crash killed three Indiana men in Montana, the government has yet to release a final report on the incident.

The National Transportation Safety Board had said it would likely take a year to complete a report on the August 2019 crash that killed Evansville residents Grant Weythman, Tim Arnold and Allen Eicher.

They were traveling to Pinehaven Christian Children's Ranch and School in St. Ignatius, Montana.

The NTSB said delays began when the investigator assigned to the case was reassigned to the 2020 helicopter crash that killed nine people, including former NBA star Kobe Bryant, in Calabasas, California.

Coronavirus concerns further prevented federal investigators from going to accident sites or to see airplane manufacturers last year, spokesman Keith Holloway told the Courier & Press.

Holloway said the NTSB western region has only two or three aviation investigators.

But after the Bryant investigation was completed in February, NTSB investigators said there was still no estimate on when the Montana case findings would be released.

A "draft factual report" on the incident is under review, but the NTSB said it has no timetable, according to a July 13 email obtained by the Courier & Press.

Holloway said the published report on the Montana crash probably won't be longer than two pages when it does come out.

The single-engine Beechcraft struck a power line and crashed near St. Ignatius.