Plane was overloaded with moose meat in crash that killed Alaska lawmaker’s husband, NTSB says

A plane that crashed and killed the husband of then-U.S. Rep. Mary Peltola, D-Alaska, two years ago was overloaded with moose meat and antlers, federal investigators said this week.

Eugene “Buzzy” Peltola Jr., 57, was piloting a Piper PA 18-150 Super Cub when it went down in the mountains northeast of St. Mary’s on Sept. 12, 2023.

The veteran pilot was working with a group of hunters who had camped out in the remote wilderness and he was ferrying away parts of a moose they had killed, officials said.

The pilot did not use scales to weigh the cargo and the airplane was 117 pounds over its maximum takeoff weight, according to the NTSB’s final report.

Moose antlers were secured to the plane’s right wing, a normal practice in Alaska. But that requires FAA sign off and there was “no evidence that such approval had been granted for the accident airplane,” according to the report.

The plane was carrying about 500 pounds of moose — 110 pounds of leg, 150 pounds of hind quarters, 50 pounds of ribs, 110 pounds of various other cuts and 70 pounds of antlers, NTSB records showed.

“The downdrafts, along with the overweight airplane and the added drag and lateral weight imbalance caused by the antlers on the right wing, would likely have resulted in the airplane having insufficient power and/or control authority to maneuver above terrain,” the report said.

Shortly after takeoff, hunter Travis Hopkins was on the ground and “recalled hearing a sputter sound and then silence,” according to previously disclosed NTSB findings.

Hopkins ran to the top of a nearby hill and spotted wreckage before racing to the scene, finding “the pilot still conscious in the front seat but he had sustained facial injuries,” the NTSB said.

Hopkins used satellite communications to call for help at 8:48 p.m., officials said.

An Alaska Air National Guard helicopter arrived at some point between 1:30 a.m. and 2 a.m. in hopes of taking the pilot to the closest hospital about 400 miles away in Anchorage, officials said.

The pilot was talking and didn’t appear to be in obvious pain but “he became less responsive over the next two hours until he became non-responsive and they could no longer find a pulse,” the NTSB said.

The victim’s “cause of death was multiple blunt force injuries, and his manner of death was accident,” the NTSB said.

The pilot’s wife, Mary Peltola, became a national figure in August 2022 when she became the first native Alaskan to win a Congressional seat.

The Democrat topped GOP rivals that included former Gov. Sarah Palin, to take the seat that had been previous held by Rep. Don Young, who died in March that year at the age of 88.

Peltola won election to the full term in November 2022 before she was edged last year by Republican Nick Begich.