Clues sought in crash that killed Navy pilot

RENO " Federal investigators said they haven't ruled out anything as the cause of a small plane crash in northern Nevada that killed a decorated Navy pilot and his three daughters.

National Transportation Safety Board and Federal Aviation Administration investigators over the weekend combed the wreckage for clues as to whether human error, weather or a mechanical problem caused the crash Friday night in Fallon, 60 miles east of Reno.

"Right now it's just a matter of we're gathering everything so what I know can change in a heartbeat," NTSB investigator Patrick Jones said. "We're basically looking at weather, we're looking at environment, we're looking at the aircraft."

Cmdr. Luther H. Hook III, the No. 2 officer at Naval Air Station Fallon, died when his twin-engine Cessna 320 crashed and burst into flames less than a mile from the Fallon airport runway after a flight from Fresno, Calif.

Also killed were three daughters from a previous marriage: Kaitlyn Hook, 15; Rachel Hook, 12; and Mackenzie Hook, 9, all of Clovis, Calif.

Hook, 44, executive officer at the air station, had flown to Fresno on Friday to pick up his daughters and was bringing them to Fallon for the weekend when his private plane crashed.

Witnesses told authorities that the plane appeared to be in distress and was maneuvering erratically shortly before the crash.

Wendell Hohmann, a National Weather Service forecaster in Reno, said gusts of up to 40 mph were reported at the time in Fallon.

"As far as winds and whether weather played a part in this accident, (it) is not known," Jones said.

The small craft had no black box, Jones said, and a review of a flight recording indicated nothing unusual before the crash.

He said the fire consumed "a substantial portion" of the plane, making it more difficult to examine it.

Air station personnel said they were stunned because Hook " who went by the nickname "Meat" " was an experienced pilot who had been awarded a host of medals.

Hook, a 1986 graduate of the U.S. Naval Academy, amassed over 2,700 flight hours in the F/A-18 Hornet, flying from the USS Kitty Hawk and other aircraft carriers.

"It's just shocking because he was very, very good at flying airplanes," Zip Upham, spokesman for the air station, said Sunday. "We're waiting for them to tell us if weather was the overriding factor or if something was wrong with the aircraft."

According to FAA records, the plane was manufactured in 1966 and had no prior incidents.

It also was surprising how close the plane came to landing, Upham said.

"He was within a quarter of a mile of being at the threshold. He was right there," he said. "He was trying to put it back on the ground to land safely. Unfortunately, the hardest part of flying is landing."

Investigators planned to remove the wreckage from the scene Sunday.

Funeral arrangements were still pending.