Witnesses heard sputtering engine before small plane crash

ANCHORAGE, Alaska (AP) - Witnesses tell federal investigators that they heard sounds consistent with a sputtering engine minutes before a small plane crashed on Alaska’s Kenai Peninsula last month, killing two men.

The Alaska Dispatch News reports (https://is.gd/TPECHU) the witness accounts are contained in an initial National Transportation Safety Board report on the Aug. 22 crash. Killed in the accident about five miles southwest of Kasilof were the pilot, 69-year-old Brian Nolan, and a passenger, 57-year-old Peter Lahndt. Both men were from Kasilof.

Two witnesses in the area said they heard an engine sputtering or misfiring shortly before a crash was heard. A post-crash fire engulfed the plane and consumed the fuselage and left wing.

The NTSB plans to inspect the frame of the Cessna 180 and the Continental Motors O-470-series engine.

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Information from: Alaska Dispatch News, https://www.adn.com