NTSB Prelim Expected Within A Week

A National Transportation Safety Board investigator assigned to Thursday's Citation 550 crash in Dillon, MT suspects the pilot was attempting an instrument landing in overcast skies and came in at a steep angle.

Pilot Allan Hamilton, 69, flying in to Dillon Airport from Rockford, IL radioed the airport minutes before he crashed, said Howard Plagens, an investigator with the National Transportation Safety Board.

"He had to come down through an overcast to get down," Plagens said.

As ANN reported, snow and fog were in the area when the bizjet impacted a field east of Dillon Airport (KDLN). The aircraft exploded on impact, Sheriff Jay Hansen told Moline, IL television station WQAD-8, killing Hamilton and passenger John Wauterlek, 30.

Although a final determination is still a long way off, the preliminary report is due to be released in five days, Plagens told the Associated Press.

Cessna dispatched two specialists to the scene who will work closely with the NTSB in the investigation.

"We're just looking at the ground scars," Plagens said Friday. "We're just documenting where we find things and we'll sit down and talk about it later."

According to Plagens, evidence at the crash site, including a lack of skid marks, indicates the aircraft approached at a steep angle.

Hamilton had installed a cockpit voice recorder that has been sent to Washington, DC for analysis and could provide the most helpful information in the investigation, Plagens said, but there was no flight data recorder.

"If we get a good recording it could be a key element in it," he said. "We never know until we listen."

Hamilton, of Huntley, IL founded Hamilton Partners Inc., a Chicago-area commercial developer. Wauterlek was an employee, described by associates as Hamilton's protégé.

FMI: www.faa.gov