KYUK - Bethel

The investigation continues into a mid-air plane collision northwest of Russian Mission on Wednesday that left no survivors.

Alaska State Troopers and investigators with the National Transportation Safety Board are heading to the crash sites today.

“Our focus is on body recovery efforts,” said Megan Peters, public information officer for the Alaska State Troopers.

“The NTSB is the agency that actually investigates the cause and circumstances of aircraft crashes.”

The recovered bodies will be sent to the State Medical Examiner’s Office in Anchorage. Alaska State Troopers have identified the two aircraft and the five victims.

The Renfro’s Alaskan Adventure Super Cub flying from Bethel to a hunting camp carried pilot Zach Justin Babat of Montana, 44, and passenger Jeff Thomas Burruss of Haines, 40.

The RAVN C208 Caravan flying from Russian Mission to Marshall carried pilot Harry Wrase of Wasilla, 48, and passengers Aaron Jay Minock of Russian Mission, 21, and Steven Paul Andrew of Kenai, 32.

NTSB Alaska Chief Clint Johnson said the planes crashed about a half-mile away from each other across a terrain of rolling hills and thick alders. Two investigators reached the Caravan crash site Wednesday evening just before dark.

“The briefing I was able to get from Mike Hodges, who was on scene briefly last night, indicated that the airplane is badly fragmented. Didn’t go into any other details,” Johnson said Thursday morning.

With the hike through the dense brush and rapid loss of daylight, the investigators were only at the site a short while.

“What they were able to do,” Johnson said, “was get an idea of what equipment is going to be needed to do their job.”

NTSB investigators are reviewing the limited radar data available from the area. At this point, how the planes collided is unknown.

“Keep in mind that where this accident or mid-air collision took place is in what we refer to as uncontrolled air space where they’re not under control of any air traffic control, or ATC, services at the time,” Johnson said. There is what we refer to as ADSB, which is a type of tracking system. But nevertheless, this accident took place in uncontrolled airspace, so it’s incumbent on each one of the pilots, each one of the flight crews to see and avoid the other airplane.”

Kristen DiMartino was one of the last people to see Wrase, the RAVN pilot, and one of his passengers alive Wednesday. She was one of the three people on the RAVN plane as it flew from Bethel to Russian Mission and remembers Wrase and the other passenger admiring the aircraft.

“I feel like I’m still in shock, because I’ll never get that image out of them being so happy.” DiMartino said. “They were so happy. They were just talking about the plane and literally saying how awesome it was, and then I find out they’re gone.”

The plane dropped DiMartino off in Russian Mission and picked up another passenger before flying north to Marshall. The plane never reached its destination.

Behavioral health counselors with the Yukon Kuskokwim Health Corporation are standing by at village clinics across the Yukon Kuskokwim Delta and in Bethel to talk with family members and loved ones of the victims. Anyone who would like to call and speak with an emergency clinician can call 907-543-6499.

Police arrested a man in connection with a stabbing that occurred in Bethel over the weekend.

Police have charged Mathew Romer, 25, on one count of assault in the first degree.

The victim, a 26-year-old man from Newtok, was found Saturday morning, lying on the ground in the 200 block of Akiak Drive bleeding from the abdomen.

Emergency workers transported him to the Yukon Kuskokwim Health Corporation before flying him to Anchorage where he’s listed in stable condition at the Alaska Native Medical Center.

Bethel Police continue investigating the case and ask any witnesses to contact them.

When Alaska Vocational Technical Center, or AVTEC, closed its Allied Health Program in Anchorage this year, it was forced to end relationships with some rural communities that used AVTEC’s professors for their certified nurse’s assistant, or CNA, programs.

The good news for students in Bethel is that not much will change for them.

Jeremy Osborne, director of programs at the Yuut Elitnaurviat Learning Center, said that despite the AVTEC program’s closure, Yuut’s six-week CNA program will run as planned.

“So we were going to do this regardless of if they closed down or not, but when they decided to close down, we got the same instructors. It’s just a little bit cheaper,” Osborne said.

He said that because the instructors are working as independent contractors, it saves Yuut money. Not much, but that’s money that can be spent in other places.

The CNA program at Yuut already has been a direct path to jobs for many Delta residents.

Many graduates go to work at the Yukon Kuskokwim Elders Home, he said.

“It’s an amazing job. It’s very demanding, it’s elder care,” Osborne said. “And right now they’ve pretty much told us that they will take as many people as we can train.”

University of Alaska Fairbanks, Kuskokwim Campus in Bethel offers a similar semester-long program that will also continue as usual.

Federal and state authorities followed up Wednesday’s sentencing of former Bethel Police office Andrew Reid with a news conference in Anchorage.

Alaska Department of Law Criminal Division director John Skidmore said that Reid’s plea deal means that he can’t return to police work.

“In the same way that you can have a barrel of apples, sometimes there are bad ones, and where those bad ones are found, they will be removed, as was the case with Mr. Reid,” Skidmore said. “Not only did he have his police certificate revoked, he was also sentenced to jail time in this case.”

The FBI’s new Alaska District special agent-in-charge Marlin Ritzman said that the Bethel case is part of a national effort.

“For the FBI, public corruption and civil rights violations are our number one criminal priority,” Ritzman said. “And we’re standing up here today with our partnerships to let the community know that we take these charges very seriously, and we’re committed to working with our local partners on insuring that these crimes are properly prosecuted.”

Alaska’s new Attorney General Jahna Lindemuth echoed that stance, indicating that she very much welcomes federal help in dealing with the serious challenges the state’s legal and law enforcement system faces in rural communities.

“I want to thank the Federal Bureau of Investigation, the FBI, for their thorough investigation and help in prosecuting Mr. Reid,” Lindemuth said. “My office enjoys a very good relationship with both the FBI and the US Attorney’s office, and this is yet another example of us collaborating to work on criminal justice issues, especially in rural Alaska.”

The authorities said that the FBI was called in by the Bethel Police Department 10 days after the 2014 incident to investigate the case.

Police Chief Andre Achee presented an update to Bethel City Council on the department’s recruiting efforts since the city gave it the ability to raise its salary budget by more than 25 percent.

The chief reported that the department is still only at 50 percent capacity, with many of the officers working two weeks on, two weeks off.

These officers do not get benefits, but have a base pay of $60/hour with $90/hour for overtime.

Achee was not concerned that this was impacting the department’s spending ability, and said that he would not be seeking additional funds from council.

Two school district pickup trucks were stolen Thursday morning from the Lower Kuskokwim School District office parking lot.

Vandals hotwired one truck about 5:30 a.m. Thursday and rammed it into the side of a school van before speeding away, Superintendent Dan Walker said.

Later, they returned the truck, hotwired another one and drove away again.

The second truck was found in a ditch off BIA Road, just past Larson Subdivision.

All the vehicles involved were damaged.

Walker says that the vandalism was filmed by surveillance cameras, and the Bethel Police Department is investigating.