Federal officials will investigate the second sightseeing plane to crash in the southeast Alaska community of Ketchikan within a month, officials said Friday.
The Federal Aviation Administration and National Transportation Safety Board investigators will examine the cause of the two crashes that killed five people each.
Four Oregon residents and a California man were killed Thursday night when a small airplane crashed north of town. Five other people were killed in a separate crash last month.
The NTSB is sending two investigators from Anchorage and pulling four special investigators from Washington, D.C., said Jim La Belle, the agency's regional director for Alaska.
Additionally, one of the NTSB's five presidentially appointed board members, Debbie Hersman, will take part in the investigation since she was already in Alaska for a meeting, La Belle said.
The additional resources are warranted because it's the second tour plane to crash within a month, La Belle said.
Hersman and the two Anchorage-based investigators arrived and were at the crash site Friday afternoon.
"We want to see if there are some underlying issues," La Belle said. "The more eyes and the more skill sets you have, the easier it becomes. "From our perspective, this is a high visibility accident and it's going to get a lot of scrutiny. Everyone has a real concern here."
The cause of Thursday's crash was not immediately known, but Alaska State Troopers spokeswoman Megan Peters said high winds unexpectedly came up at the time of the crash. However, it couldn't immediately be determined if that was a factor.
Troopers on Friday released the identities of the crash's five victims and four survivors.
Killed in the crash were: Eric M. Smith, 37; Christine L. Smith, 36; and 3-year-old Trevor R. Smith 3, all of Tualatin, Ore.; David R. Mayer, 60, Oregon City, Ore. and Daniel J. Herron, 49, of Irvine, Calif.
Troopers identified the survivors as pilot Clifford S. Kamm, 44, and tour guide Sara J. Steffen, 27, both of Ketchikan; Allison N. Smith, 3, of Tualatin, and Mindy M. Mayer, 60, of Oregon City.
All were flown to Harborview Medical Center in Seattle and arrived early Friday morning for treatment. A hospital spokeswoman said Smith was in critical condition and remains in the hospital's intensive care unit; Kamm, Steffen and Mayer were in satisfactory condition.
Trevor and Allison were twins traveling on a cruise with their parents and grandparents -- the Mayers -- a Smith family neighbor told The Associated Press.
Neighbor Kathy Ohannessian said the Smiths took one vacation without their kids but Christine missed them so much, she vowed never to do it again.
"Their focus in life was to be wonderful parents," Ohannessian said.
Ketchikan Public Safety Director Rich Leipfert said the SeaWind Aviation deHavilland Beaver 345KA crashed into a tree just after 6 p.m. at Traitors Cove, about 25 miles north of downtown Ketchikan. Jerry Kiffer with the Ketchikan Volunteer Rescue Squad said the plane went down on land along the shore.
Peters said it couldn't be immediately confirmed that the plane hit a tree, but several trees were burning after the crash.
Search and rescue officials recovered the bodies Friday morning and they will be released to their families, troopers said.
SeaWind Aviation offers bear viewing and sightseeing tours, including to nearby Misty Fiords National Monument.
Investigators will be looking at a multiple of possible causes, including weather at the time of the crash, the plane's flight and maintenance logs, and the pilot's ratings and medical records.
According to the National Weather Service, airport conditions -- about 25 miles away from the crash site -- recorded winds picking up and reaching a peak of 33 mph just after 6 p.m. Visibility was about 10 miles, but 20 minutes before the crash, the cloud ceiling was starting to drop from 11,000 feet, Nichole Becker with the weather service said. Readings are only taken every hour, and about 7 p.m., the cloud ceiling was 1,100 feet.
FAA spokesman Allen Kenitzer said all the variables that could have affected the flight will be considered.
"They will try to find out what really happened," Kenitzer said Friday.
Last month, the pilot and four passengers of a sightseeing plane died when the plane crashed in the mountains of Misty Fiords National Monument, also near Ketchikan.
