Wrecked Globe-Hopping Plane Was Overloaded, FAA Suspects

Federal authorities today launched an investigation into the crash of a plane containing 11-year-old Tony Aliengena and seven members of his round-the-world flight crew, saying it appeared the plane was carrying two more passengers than is legal.

A charter pilot familiar with the primitive airstrip in the tiny village of Golovin, where the crash occurred Tuesday, said it appeared that Tony’s father, Gary Aliengena, who was piloting the craft, also mistakenly turned the wrong way on the runway and tried to take off with, instead of against, the wind.

The single-engine Cessna Centurion traveling at 50 to 60 m.p.h. was blown off the runway by intense crosswinds and down a 50-foot embankment onto marshy tundra, where fuel in one wing exploded into flames. All eight people aboard escaped without serious injury.

Tony, who has been piloting the plane on an itinerary chosen to make him the youngest pilot to circumnavigate the globe, escaped with a bump on his head that did not require treatment.

A replacement aircraft has been found to continue Tony’s flight.

Paul Steucke, spokesman for the Federal Aviation Administration in Anchorage, said today that crash investigators were being dispatched to Golovin but had not yet arrived. He said all information on the crash so far had come from Gary Aliengena.

He said the crashed plane had eight aboard but seats and seat belts for only six. Such a violation of federal regulations could result in a $1,000 fine and suspension or revocation of a pilot’s license.