Saturday, May 25, 2013

News
NTSB Report Says Downed Pilot Was Flying Drunk
Brendan Mattingley flew Super Cub into Cook Inlet, agency says
By Megan Edge


ANCHORAGE - Brendan Mattingley left the Soldotna Airport drunk and flew his white and green Super Cub airplane into Cook Inlet, according to the National Transportation Safety Board (NTSB).

Mattingley went missing October 13. He had flown to the Kenai Peninsula the previous day to visit with friends.

“We just flew down Friday night to Soldotna, to go down there and catch a hockey game,” his friend Eric Wansor said in October. Wansor flew down to Soldotna with Mattingley.

He said they were suppose to go fly the next day, but they never got the chance.

Witnesses said Mattingley had been drinking at Hooligans bar the night before. A bouncer kicked him out, and his friends sent him to the Aspen Hotel, but the cab driver said he refused to get out of the car.

According to the NTSB, the driver took him to the airport, where Mattingley told him he was going to “sleep in his plane.”

Mattingley asked that he not tell anyone that he was dropped off there. When the driver inquired as to why, he said, “You don’t want to know.”

The NTSB report states that Mattingley appeared to be flying erratically over the inlet for about an hour. At 2:48 a.m., 30 miles north of Soldotna, the trackers lost the signal over the Cook Inlet.

NTSB also states that he never filed a flight plan and there was no communication between the tower and the plane.