ANCHORAGE, Alaska — A preliminary report by the National Transportation Safety Board on the crash of an Alaska State Trooper helicopter gives few clues regarding the cause.
Alaska investigator Clint Johnson says the agency does not want to speculate and will know far more after reviewing data from a cockpit imaging and flight data monitoring device.
The crash April 30 killed 55-year-old pilot Mel Nading, 40-year-old Trooper Tage Toll, and an injured snowmobiler they had picked up, 56-year-old Carl Ober of Talkeetna.
The helicopter crashed 5.6 miles east of Talkeetna on a flight that should have taken only about five minutes from the snowmobiler’s pickup site to medics waiting in the town.
Johnson says the helicopter had flown 2.5 to 3 miles when it crashed.
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