It will be months before federal investigators issue a final report on Friday's mid-air collision over the Alaska wilderness that claimed the lives of seven people, four of them from Spartanburg.
Three of the Spartanburg victims were family members -- 26-year-old Caleb Hulsey, his 25 year old wife, Heather -- a well-known middle school art teacher -- along with Hulsey's 24 year old brother, Mackay, and his girlfriend, 23-year-old Kirstin Wright.
They were aboard a large single-engine Dehaviland Beaver, widely operated in Alaska and Canada's Northwest Territories.
The pilot, a local man, and a forty-year-old wildlife guide from Kansas were also killed in the collision with a vintage Piper Super Cruiser, another popular bush plane.
Its pilot and lone occupant was Alaska state lawmaker Gary Knopp.
Wreckage was strewn across a highway near the town of Soldatna, southwest of Anchorage on Alaska's Kenai peninsula, a destination for fishing, hunting and in the case of the Upstate victims, wildlife sightseeing expeditions.
The operator of a nearby airport says weather was not a factor.
Send your story idea to news@1063WORD.com.
Like 106.3 WORD on Facebook and follow @1063WORD on Twitter to engage in conversation about this article and others.
Get news headlines delivered to your email inbox by signing up here.