Pilot dies after his plane hits aircraft flown by his girlfriend as they speak to each other via radio

The couple were talking to each other from separate planes when they crashed over Nightmute, Alaska

Scott Veal was married, but going through a divorce

A pilot was talking with her boyfriend by radio before their planes collided in mid air over Alaska last week, killing him, a federal investigator said.

The two pilots took off from separate Alaska villages Friday but met up in the air on the way to Bethel, Alaska, National Transportation Safety Board investigator Clint Johnson told the Anchorage Daily News on Sunday.

Kristen Sprague, 26, was flying a Cessna 207 operated by rural freight carrier Ryan Air, according to Alaska State Troopers.



Tragic flight: Scott Veal, left, was talking to his girlfriend Kristen Sprague, right, via the radios on their planes when they collided in mid air

Victim: Scott Veal was piloting his Cessna 208 Caravan, which crashed and burst into flames Friday near the village of Nightmute, Alaska

She made an emergency landing with one airplane wing seriously damaged and wasn't hurt.

The other plane, a Cessna 208 Caravan, crashed and burst into flames Friday around 1:30 pm near the village of Nightmute, Alaska, about 400 miles west of Anchorage, Alaska, killing Scott Veal, 24, of Kenai, Alaska.

Each was the only person on-board.

It was the state's third midair crash since July.

A federal accident investigator has said two earlier mid-air collisions were marked by the same factor: aircraft that were difficult to spot amid mountainous terrain.

In Friday's collision, the two pilots were travelling together to Bethel and were communicating on a prearranged radio frequency while in the air, Johnson said.



It's too early in the investigation to say whether pilot error was a factor in the crash, he added.

Tragic: A Cessna 210, similar to that flown by the pair, who collided in mid air while talking over the radio to each other

Terrain: The crash occurred near the village of Nightmute, Alaska, about 400 miles west of Anchorage

Sprague had taken off from the Bering Sea village of Tununak, Alaska. She was headed to Bethel with about 50 pounds of aluminium cans for a recycling program, said Wilfred Ryan, president of Ryan Air.

Veal left from nearby Toksook Bay, Alaska, in an airplane operated by Grant Aviation, an air taxi and cargo carrier.

Efforts by the Anchorage Daily News to speak with a Grant representative were unsuccessful.

Sprague, of Idaho, told the investigator she was dating Veal, who reportedly was going through a divorce, Johnson said.

'They meet up in the air,' Johnson told the Anchorage Daily News.

'There's some manoeuvring that's done en route at about 1,200 feet (above sea level). The 207 pilot loses track of where the 208 is.'

Sprague remembered saying over the radio something to the effect that she couldn't see him.

Pilot dreams: Scott Veal's grandfather says the 24-year-old always dreamed of becoming an Alaska bush pilot

'The next thing she knows is his air-plane strikes her right wing, and nearly severs the right wing,' Johnson said.

The bigger plane passed underneath the Cessna 207 and came out on the left side of it, Johnson said. Sprague saw it spiral down, hit the tundra, and burst into flames, Johnson said.



She managed to land her plane on soft rolling tundra, about a mile away.

Wreckage from the Cessna 208 was strewn over a half-mile or more.

Johnson said investigators still need to review data collected on the Ryan Air plane and that the other plane didn't collect similar data.

Veal was from Southern California and always dreamed of becoming an Alaska bush pilot, his grandfather, Robert Veal, told the Anchorage newspaper.

'It's in the family. His father and myself are both flight instructors,' the grandfather said by phone from Winchester, California.