Federal investigators say the plane that crashed in September 2023, killing former United States Rep. Mary Peltola’s husband, was overloaded with cargo.
That’s according to the National Transportation Safety Board (NTSB)’s final report released July 22 on the crash near St. Mary’s that resulted in the death of pilot Eugene “Buzzy” Peltola Jr., 57. Peltola Jr. was a well-respected Bethel community member who’d previously served as Alaska regional director for the U.S. Bureau of Indian Affairs. He retired from the position to support his wife’s successful run for Congress.
According to the report, in the days before the accident Peltola Jr. was transporting a group of hunters from Holy Cross to an airstrip near St. Mary’s, where the hunters set up camp. The hunters killed a moose, and Peltola Jr. made a series of two flights to transport the meat and other remains back to Holy Cross.
The report says the first flight on Sept. 12, 2023 was uneventful. During the second flight later that day, Peltola Jr.’s plane was ferrying about 117 more pounds of cargo than its maximum takeoff weight, or about 6% over. Additionally, Peltola Jr. had strapped the moose’s antlers to the plane's right wing strut. While the report notes that transporting antlers in that manner isn’t unusual, it says the practice requires formal Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) approval, which officials said had not been done.
The second flight took off at around 8:45 p.m. The report says that as the plane reached the end of the runway, “it pitched up and turned sharply to the right; however, rather than climbing as before, it flew behind the adjacent ridgeline and out of view.”
Hunters headed up and over the ridge, where they saw the plane had crashed. The hunters pulled Peltola Jr. from the crash site, according to the report, and one of them issued an SOS from a satellite phone. Though hunters were able to bundle Peltola Jr. in a blanket near a heater, he ultimately succumbed to wounds from the crash after about two hours. A National Guard helicopter sent from Joint Base Elmendorf-Richardson in Anchorage arrived about six hours after the crash occurred, at around 1:50 a.m. the following morning.
The report attributed the crash to Peltola Jr. operating the plane while it exceeded its maximum weight limit and installing an unapproved external load to the plane which resulted in “a loss of airplane control during takeoff into an area of mechanical turbulence and downdrafts.”
Investigators added that “there was no evidence that any of the meat had shifted in flight, and the antlers remained firmly attached to the wing strut and were not interfering with any of the flight control cables.”
Unrelated to the release of the NTSB report, Peltola Jr.’s widow, former Congresswoman Mary Peltola, filed a lawsuit on July 18 against the owners of the plane her husband was flying. The suit alleges negligence by hunting guide Bruce Werba and two companies under Werba’s control, which caused Peltola Jr.’s death.
