JUNEAU, Alaska — No definitive cause can be determined for the plane crash that killed former US senator Ted Stevens and four others last summer in Alaska, the National Transportation Safety Board said yesterday.
The board agreed at a hearing in Washington that “temporary unresponsiveness’’ of the pilot could be to blame, but the reasons can’t be determined. There were no flight data or cockpit voice recorders on board what officials described as a plane otherwise outfitted with state-of-the-art equipment. The front-seat passenger, who survived, was said to be asleep at the time of the crash.
