BETHEL – Four people were killed Thursday afternoon when a four-seater airplane crashed on the western side of Barker Mountain. It was believed all the victims were from Western Maine.
The 24-year-old pilot and three others who were taking flying lessons were killed, according to officials at Twin Cities Air Service in Auburn, which owned the Cessna that crashed.
The names of the victims were not released Thursday night. Just after nightfall, rescue crews from several agencies suspended their recovery efforts after hours of moving into the rugged terrain near Sunday River Ski Resort.
“At this point, it’s just too dark for them to operate safely,” said Mark Latti, spokesman for the Maine Department of Inland Fisheries and Wildlife.
Latti and an official from the Federal Aviation Administration confirmed that there were no survivors.
A crew reached the crash scene about 8 p.m., Latti said.
The plane crashed about 4:30 p.m. roughly an hour after it took off from the Bethel Regional Airport, where the three students had been picked up.
The 27-year-old Cessna 172 flew to Bethel from Auburn-Lewiston Municipal Airport in Auburn, said Twin Cities Air Service President Nate Humphrey.
Humphrey said the pilot was a certified flight instructor with more than 900 hours of flight experience. He said the pilot was “a competent, well-trained member of our crew.”
The flight was being conducted under visual flight rules, Humphrey said.
According to the news release, the three passengers who died were taking introductory flight lessons.
The cause of the crash remained unknown late Thursday night. Latti said the FAA would send an investigator to the site, as will officials from the National Transportation Safety Board.
Rescuers from several agencies were hampered by the remote location, according to Latti. Wardens from the Maine Department of Inland Fisheries and Wildlife were helping rescue crews reach the scene four hours after the plane went down.
By 8 p.m., six rescue workers reached the scene. None of the victims’ bodies was removed from the woods.
“It’s pretty remote,” Latti said. “It looks like it’s over a mile to the nearest road.”
Latti said rescuers used four-wheel drive vehicles to go into the remote stretch, switched to all-terrain vehicles where the landscape became rougher, and then walked another 500 feet to reach the downed plane.
The state sent an aircraft over the crash site, and a LifeFlight helicopter was deployed from Lewiston. Latti said he expected the recovery effort and investigation would resume this morning.
Licensed flight instructor Chase McKendry of Sugarloaf Ski Area said Tuesday night that an introductory flight lesson usually gives students “a taste of what flying feels like. They get on the controls to get the feel of it, but also at the same time, the instructor is at the second set of controls at all times.”
“Each student is given about a half-hour of flight time. The pilot is in the right-hand seat,” with one student at the set of controls in the front left seat and the other students in the back seats.
“Basically the instructor gauges the amount of control of the students,” he said. “No matter what the student does, there is usually a huge amount of time to recover from a mistake.”
Comments are no longer available on this story