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A preliminary report on the plane crash that killed Maine Game Warden Joshua Tibbetts last month contained details of the investigation but no explanation of what caused the crash.
Joshua Tibbetts was stocking fish in western Maine on May 12 when the fixed-wing Cessna A185F he was piloting crashed in the town of Avon. Tibbetts, who was alone in the plane, was dead when rescuers reached him in a densely wooded area 400 yards from the nearest road.
The 50-year-old warden started his flight from a seaplane base on Crystal Lake in Harrison then flew to Rangeley Lake and loaded fish to be stocked at Schoolhouse Pond, according to the NTSB.
The airplane had floats and two fish pods that could be emptied electronically by the pilot.
Tibbetts had about 12 gallons of water and 42 pounds of fish in his airplane’s right pod when he set out for Schoolhouse Pond, the NTSB said. At least some of these were seen at the crash site.
Tibbetts had flown along the eastern shore of the pond and was in a right turn when the Federal Aviation Administration recorded its last data points before the crash.
Tibbetts was honored at a large ceremony in Bangor attended by hundreds of law enforcement officers.
