The Nation - News from July 30, 1986
Kenneth Ferguson, the co-pilot of a DC-3 that crashed, killing singer Rick Nelson and six others, said he was “nervous” about a troublesome cabin heater before a fire forced the plane down, federal documents revealed. But the National Transportation Safety Board statements of fact on the crash said that pilot Brad Rank kept turning the heater on to try to get it to work properly. The board has yet to determine the cause of the cabin fire Dec. 31, 1985, which caused the crash near DeKalb, Tex., though sources said the heater is a key focus of the investigation.
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