Equipment mysteries in Alaska crash

JUNEAU, Alaska - The plane that crashed into an Alaskan mountainside, killing former U.S. Sen. Ted Stevens (R., Alaska) and four others, was outfitted with an alert system that warned pilots of dangerous terrain.

But National Transportation Safety Board chairwoman Deborah Hersman said it was not known whether the system was working just before the crash Monday.

The plane was also equipped with an emergency locator transmitter, Hersman said Friday at a news conference in Anchorage.

When properly registered, the transmitter issues a distress signal to a control center via satellites and provides registration information, such as the owner's name. She said it was also unclear why that signal didn't activate.

The five victims died from blunt-force trauma, state Medical Examiner Katherine Raven said.

Four people survived, and investigators interviewed two of them Friday.

Hersman told reporters one of the survivors said, "They were flying along, and they just stopped flying."

The survivor said he didn't notice any changes in the plane's pitch or hear any unusual engine sounds right before the plane went down in southwest Alaska.

Hersman didn't say which of the survivors spoke with officials.

Former NASA chief Sean O'Keefe; his son Kevin; Jim Morhard; and 13-year-old William "Willy" Phillips Jr. survived the crash.

Sean O'Keefe was upgraded Friday from critical to serious condition at an Anchorage hospital. Kevin O'Keefe remained in fair condition; Morhard also was in fair condition; and Phillips was in good condition.

Killed along with Stevens were pilot Theron Smith; General Communications Inc. executive Dana Tindall; Tindall's 16-year-old daughter, Corey; and William "Bill" Phillips Sr., the 13-year-old survivor's father, who had worked with Stevens in Washington.

Hersman said one survivor recalled that the group had decided during lunch at a GCI-owned lodge to fly to a fishing camp, a trip they had put off in the morning because of poor weather.

The survivor said conditions had improved by afternoon.

Smith was a temporary replacement for the regular pilot, who had unexpectedly quit, GCI spokesman David Morris said.

Smith was a longtime Alaska Airlines pilot who retired in 2007 after 28 years and was qualified to fly the floatplane and to fly in that part of the country, Morris said.