NTSB: Bucklin couldn't overcome wind pushing down his plane

Minneapolis pilot Luke Bucklin reported to air traffic control that he could not overcome wind currents pushing down his small airplane moments before it crashed in the mountains of western Wyoming, killing him and his three sons, according a preliminary federal report.

The National Transportation Safety Board (NTSB), in initial findings of the Oct. 25 crash released late Wednesday, said Bucklin radioed in that he was "unable to maintain altitude due to mountain wave activity."

The plane was at about 13,300 feet at the time of Bucklin's transmission. Bucklin's plane, a Mooney M20J, was designed to fly above altitudes that Bucklin reached that day, said Michael Huhn, the NTSB's lead investigator into this crash.

Bucklin's report of trouble with the wind was the last contact from the plane. Its disappearance set off a weeklong search, which ended with the discovery of the wreckage and the four aboard at 11,100 feet of the Wind River mountain range. Bucklin, 40, and his sons, 14-year-old twins Nate and Nick, and 12-year-old Noah, were killed on impact.

Huhn said that mountain wave activity, like what Bucklin encountered, is a "large air mass moving like a wave" that can force airplanes down in mountain areas.

The NTSB report also noted that Bucklin reported at 14,000 feet that he was encountering a "light chop" of turbulence and "a trace of rime icing" on his plane about 40 minutes after takeoff. Rime icing is granular, similar to what builds up in older models of freezers and can impact a plane's ability to gain lift when is accumulates on the wings.

Weather reports had forecast turbulence and icing along the plane's intended route, according to the NTSB. Bucklin was rated to fly under instrument guidance when visibility is poor.

A retired longtime NTSB investigator, based on reading the preliminary report, said Bucklin should have stayed put knowing what he knew at the time about the weather and the terrain ahead.

"I would never fly a single-engine airplane like that under those conditions," said Ronald Schleede, a 30-year veteran of the NTSB, who lived in that mountainous part of the country while with the agency and investigated about a dozen similar crashes in the area over a three-to four-year period.

"He's already got rime ice on the airplane, and that plane is not made to handle much ice," said Schleede, who has flown planes similar to the Mooney in that area. "That's really poor judgment to take a plane like that to that altitude with that forecast. You just don't want to get in icing in that situation."

Schleede added that with four people, baggage and fuel, Bucklin was probably maxed out for how much weight the plane could handle. "That plane doesn't have a lot of power, unless it's turbocharged," he said. The NTSB said it was not.

Wife: 'He had a window of time'

"The last few text messages I got from him [came] when the weather was clearing up and he could see blue sky," she said. He had a positive forecast for the next couple hours to get out. He had a window of time."

Bucklin flew the same route out to Wyoming on this trip without incident, said family spokeswoman Bonnie Harris, and also was familiar with mountainous terrain because of his training and flight experience in the Colorado Rockies.

Another expert, Dan Stratman, a consultant with nearly 30 years of experience as a pilot for Northwest Airlines, the Air Force and in general aviation, read the NTSB's preliminary report and said there were "numerous 'threats' present in this one flight." While emphasizing that the agency's findings could change with its final report, Stratman listed those challenges that Bucklin faced as: bad weather, icing, turbulence, mountain waves, high altitude, mountain terrain and flying a plane that was not turbo-charged. "Those are a lot of issues to have to deal with on one flight in a small airplane," he said. The preliminary report offers the most detailed account yet of the events in the handful of hours leading up to Bucklin departing, his actions and what he reported to air traffic control before the crash: About 9:20 a.m. MDT, Bucklin received a weather report by telephone. He called again for a weather update at 10:40 a.m. and filed an instrument flight rule (IFR) plan. Both weather reports noted turbulence and icing in his projected path.

Bucklin planned to depart at 11:30 a.m. for Rapid City, S.D. At 12:37 p.m., he filed a new flight plan with a 12:47 p.m. takeoff for Pierre, S.D., about 170 miles east of Rapid City.

The plane left Jackson Hole shortly after 1 p.m. At 1:41 p.m., Bucklin radioed in his encounter with modest turbulence and icing at 14,000 feet. At 1:46 p.m., radar detected the plane at the same altitude.

The plane's cabin was unpressurized, and an oxygen bottle was on board. Bottled oxygen is required by federal regulation for the pilot starting at 12,500 feet and for passengers at 15,000 feet, however pilots generally start tapping additional oxygen at 10,000 feet.

A final report on the crash from the NTSB is pending. Huhn said it could include factors not raised in the initial findings.

Bucklin was flying with his boys back to the Twin Cities after a wedding and family vacation. Ginger Bucklin and another son flew home earlier on a commercial flight.

Bucklin was president and co-founder of Sierra Bravo Corp., a Web development company based in Bloomington.

Star Tribune staff writer Abby Simons contributed to this report.