Too much moose meat and antlers caused a plane crash in Alaska that killed congresswoman’s husband, the NTSB reports

By Aaron Cooper, CNN

(CNN) — Too much moose meat and antlers strapped to a wing caused a deadly small plane crash in Alaska, a nearly two-year long investigation by the National Transportation Safety Board determined in a report released Tuesday.

The small Piper PA-18 plane had taken a group of hunters to a remote wilderness area near St. Mary’s, Alaska on September 12, 2023, where they killed a moose, the report said.

The first flight to ferry the meat to a larger airport was successful, but on a second trip the plane crashed just after takeoff. The hunters provided the pilot, who was the only person onboard the plane, with first aid, but he died a short time later.

CNN previously reported the pilot killed was Eugene “Buzzy” Peltola Jr., the husband of Mary Peltola, who represented Alaska in the US House from 2022 to 2025. He also served as the regional director of the Alaska Bureau of Indian Affairs for several years before retiring in 2022.

Investigators determined the plane was loaded with 520 pounds of cargo – which was 117 pounds more than the plane could handle. Besides moose meat, the aircraft also had a set of antlers strapped to the wing. While it is a allowed to hang antlers on aircraft wings in Alaska, the NTSB found the required formal Federal Aviation Administration approval for the practice had not been granted for this plane.

The NTSB’s report concluded that the cause of the crash was the excess weight and the “unapproved external load” of the antlers, which “degraded takeoff performance and flight characteristics” leading to a loss of control.

The plane itself was more than 70 years old, but so many pieces had been replaced “almost none of the original airplane existed,” the NTSB report said.

The day before the crash Rep. Peltola attended a September 11 commemoration in Anchorage with President Joe Biden and flew with him to Washington, DC on Air Force One.

“Buzzy was a devoted public servant,” Biden said at the time of the crash. “He is being remembered as a friend to all. But we know he was, first and always, the adored and devoted husband and father to a family now in pain.”

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