A deadly plane accident in remote Alaska may have been caused by the pilot trying to avoid a dog on the runway. Per an FAA report on the Cessna 207 that went down on Monday afternoon, the small plane "crashed for unknown reasons" as it was attempting to land, and slid into the water at the end of the runway at the rural airport in Nanwalek, on the Kenai Peninsula. Two people died and one was badly hurt in the incident, and now clues are trickling in on what those "unknown reasons" may have been.
Clint Johnson, head of the National Transportation Safety Board's Alaska region, tells KTUU that "what we understand now is that there may have been an animal, namely a dog, that was on the runway." Johnson notes that the pilot, identified as 48-year-old Daniel Bunker, "initiated a go-around," meaning he was aborting his landing and trying again, and had "made a right turn away from the runway, pretty steep climb, and unfortunately, there was a loss of control." Johnson said it was likely that the plane encountered an "aerodynamic stall," which CBS News explains as the wing ceasing to produce lift—what keeps an aircraft aloft.
Still, Johnson says the probe is still in its "very formative stages." Bunker was killed in the crash, as was passenger Jenny Irene Miller, 37, authorities say. An unidentified male passenger was airlifted from the site of the accident to an Anchorage hospital with serious injuries, per state troopers. Johnson says what's left of the plane once it's recovered will be transported to Homer to be analyzed. Autopsies, meanwhile, are set to be performed on the deceased. Officials are asking anyone who may have witnessed the crash to email them at witness@ntsb.gov. (More plane crash stories.)
,
uBlock 
,
and
Ghostery 
)
