Experts begin puzzling search NTSB begins task of figuring out

Investigators face

challenge to find answers.

By JOHN MacDONALD

The Associated Press

MINA, S.D. --- Investigators began gathering the remains of golfer Payne Stewart and five others from the area around a 10-foot-deep crater in a soggy pasture Tuesday, hoping to determine whether a sudden loss in cabin pressure doomed their Learjet.

Dressed in heavy overalls against a cold wind, members of the National Transportation Safety Board spent all day at the South Dakota crash site, picking through the wreckage not only for the victims but for identifiable pieces of the shattered aircraft.

Investigators cautioned that there will be no quick explanation for why no one was conscious at the controls for four hours Monday, when the jet flew 1,400 miles across the country before running out of fuel and slamming nose-first into the ground.

The plane had no flight data recorder that could yield information about the aircraft and its performance.

It had a cockpit voice recorder, but it consisted of a 30-minute loop that usually records over itself. And Stewart and the others on the plane presumably were already unconscious or dead by the last half-hour of the flight. The cockpit recorder hadn't been found as of Tuesday night.

Most of the plane's debris is embedded in mud and soil within a 10- foot-deep, 30-foot-wide crater, said Bob Francis, vice chairman of the National Transportation Safety Board.

"It looks like the aircraft was pretty much vertical when it hit the ground," he said. "The ground is soft, and it went in fairly deep. It's going to be a challenge, with the wreckage and sorting out what's there."

Investigators searched around the edge of the crater Tuesday and plan to search inside it today.

They were sending tissue samples from the victims to a medical examiner's lab to test for substances such as carbon monoxide.

But Brad Randall, a state medical examiner, said toxicology tests may be worthless in attempting to verify one possible theory for the accident --- that the victims suffered oxygen deprivation because of a sudden decompression of the aircraft.

Planes that fly above 12,000 feet are pressurized because the air doesn't contain enough oxygen for people to breathe comfortably. If a plane loses pressure at high altitude, those aboard could slowly lose consciousness or, if an aircraft broke a door or window seal, perish in seconds from lack of oxygen.

If a plane loses cabin pressure, pilots are supposed to put on oxygen masks and quickly descend to 12,000 feet or lower. There was no evidence suggesting the pilots of Stewart's jet made any effort to do so, but Francis declined to speculate about what that could mean.

On Monday, air traffic controllers were unable to raise anyone aboard the plane by radio soon after it took off from Orlando, Fla. Fighter pilots who chased after the plane were unable to see into the Learjet because its windows were frosted over, indicating the temperature inside was well below freezing.

Francis confirmed the crew of one of the fighter jets made a videotape of the Learjet.

"It appears that the video was taken through a heads-up display on the aircraft, and the quality is probably not going to be good enough to help us," he said.

Officials said the air temperature at the altitude the jet was flying would have been minus 70 degrees. Together, the evidence raised suspicions the plane had experienced a catastrophic loss of cabin pressure.

Four years ago, federal regulators ordered that valves that regulate pressure on Learjets be replaced to "prevent rapid decompression of the airplane." The Federal Aviation Administration gave owners 18 months to comply.

James Watkins, president of Sunjet Aviation Inc., which operated the jet, told the Washington Post for a story in Wednesday's editions that the aircraft's maintenance log books showed that the new valves had been installed.

The FAA also limited planes to an altitude of 41,000 feet until the valves were replaced because of the possibility they could fail.

In the plane's last radio transmission above Gainesville, Fla., the pilot was instructed to climb to 39,000 feet.

The 23-year-old, eight-passenger plane had logged more than 10,000 hours of flight time but had no history of serious mechanical problems, according to the FAA.

The twin-engine jet was operated by Sunjet Aviation Inc. Company President James Watkins said the plane had been inspected before it took off and four other times in the past week.

Stewart, 42, with his knickers and tam-o'-shanter hat, was one of the world's most recognizable golfers. He won 18 tournaments, including two U.S. Open titles. He also was part of the team that helped the United States stage a historic comeback to beat Europe last month for the Ryder Cup.

Stewart and his wife, Tracey, had two children, ages 10 and 13.

"He's an irreplaceable guy," fellow golfer Duffy Waldorf said. "I think of Payne Stewart, and there's a guy that's going to be like Jack Nicklaus and Arnold Palmer, a guy you want around all those years."

Also killed were Stewart's agents, Robert Fraley and Van Ardan, and the two pilots, Michael Kling, 43, and Stephanie Bellegarrigue, 27. Bruce Borland, 40, one of Nicklaus' golf course designers, also was believed to have been on the plane.

Kling had flown approximately 4,000 hours. However, Francis said only 37 of those were in a Learjet. He became eligible to fly the Learjet a month ago.

Bellegarrigue had between 1,000 and 2,000 hours, Francis said. It wasn't clear how many of those hours were in a Learjet.

"It looks like the

aircraft was pretty much vertical when it hit the ground."

--- BOB FRANCIS,

vice chairman of the NTSB

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