Matthew Wald of The New York Times, assisted by Liz Robbins, adds some details to current knowledge of the Alaska plane crash of August 9th. From Communication Problems May Have Delayed Search Following Alaska Plane Crash:

The search for the plane that crashed on an Alaska hillside Monday night, killing former senator Ted Stevens and four others, may have been delayed by hours due to communication breakdowns on the ground and a problem with the plane’s emergency beacon, the chairwoman of the National Transportation Safety Board said on Thursday.

Two investigators for the safety board were briefly on the site Wednesday, while other investigators are waiting to interview the four survivors who are at Providence Alaska Medical Center. The crash killed the pilot, Theron “Terry” Smith, 62.

The conditions of two of the survivors improved on Thursday, as a spokeswoman for the hospital said that James Morhard and Kevin O’Keefe were upgraded from serious to fair condition. Kevin O’Keefe’s father, Sean O’Keefe, the former NASA administrator, is still in critical condition. William Phillips, 13, is still in good condition. His father, William, died in the crash.

Board investigators are having trouble piecing together a timeline of the crash, because they say they have received conflicting reports of when the plane took off and when rescuers reached the scene, said the chairwoman, Deborah A.P. Hersman.

Reports have put the plane’s departure from a hunting lodge anywhere from 2 p.m. to 3:15 p.m., and discovery of the plane between 6:30 p.m. and 8 p.m. It would have taken the group about 15 minutes by air from the take-off to the crash scene, unless they had “flown around a little bit, trying to make their way” in the poor visibility,” Ms. Hersman said.

A flight plan, according to the Times, was not required, “was not required and would not have made the crash any less likely, but would have alerted authorities earlier that it was overdue.”

What inferences can we draw based on current information? What questions are raised?

• Not filing a flight plan would seem to be erring away from caution – and also raises the question of whether anyone connected with the flight was interested in preventing the creation of a paper trail;
• the gross variations in recollections of departure time (two hours, in accounts given hours after a memorable event, with the ready availability of other records (mobile phone records, for instance) suggest the possibility that one account is false, or otherwise unreliable.

We’ll try to keep up with this story as it unfolds.