Update Dec. 28: A post on a Caring Bridge page says Kristen Fenske died Dec. 27.
A buckled wing was seen on a Piper PA-18 Super Cub just before it crashed along the Sterling Highway near Anchor Point earlier this month, killing the pilot and injuring the passenger.
The crash happened around 1:15 p.m. Dec. 8. The National Transportation Safety Board released a preliminary investigation report Wednesday. The plane’s descent was recorded in dashcam footage from a vehicle on the Sterling Highway. Clint Johnson, chief of NTSB’s Alaska office, said in the report that the dashcam video has been helpful in determining what might have gone wrong.
Homer resident Kurt St. Jean was flying his Super Cub with his partner Kristen Fenske aboard. They took off around 11:30 a.m. from a private airstrip on Pike Lake near King Salmon and were heading for Homer, planning to fly northeast to Chinitna Bay, cross Cook Inlet to Anchor Point and go from there south to Homer. It’s common for pilots to try to cross the inlet where it’s narrower to limit time over open water.
As the plane approached the Sterling Highway, dashcam footage shows its left wing folded against the fuselage as it spins toward trees and brush along the road. A witness reports hearing the plane’s engine RPMs increasing and seeing the plane, “Inverted and spinning in a nose-low attitude towards the ground.”
Johnson said it wasn’t immediately clear what caused the wing to fail. At the crash site, investigators found the left wing only partially attached to the rest of the plane and both lift struts fractured. The right wing and struts were still attached. The fuselage was twisted and damaged from impact. The wreckage was taken to Wasilla for more thorough examination to pinpoint the origination of the wing’s failure.
St. Jean died at the scene. Fenske was brought to South Peninsula Hospital in Homer, then Providence Alaska Medical Center in Anchorage. A GoFundMe account set up for Fenske said she sustained multiple life-threatening injuries. An update posted Dec. 24 on a Caring Bridge page says Fenske has been moved to comfort care.
St. Jean’s obituary says he was born and raised in Colorado and moved to Homer after graduating from San Diego University in California. He was a commercial and sport fisherman, boat captain, carpenter, real estate investor, hunter, pilot and, the obituary says, the, ”ultimate adventurer.”
There’s no time estimate yet for NTSB’s final report on the crash.
