Investigators Keep Searching, but Crash May Remain a Mystery

Investigators picked through Payne Stewart’s shattered Learjet on Thursday for valves and other small parts that might help answer whether the golfer’s flight was doomed by a loss of oxygen in the cabin.

The National Transportation Safety Board also said it is looking closely at three similar Learjet crashes over the past two decades.

Still, investigators are concerned that the cause of Stewart’s crash will never be known because the plane and the bodies were so severely damaged, according to a high-level government official who spoke on the condition of anonymity.

“I don’t know if we’ll ever be able to tell what happened from what we dug out of that hole,” the official said.

Stewart and five other people died Monday aboard the plane, which crashed into a cow pasture near Mina four hours after it left Orlando, Fla., for Texas. The plane flew 1,400 miles across the country, apparently on autopilot, before it ran out of fuel.

Bob Benzon, who is in charge of the investigation for the NTSB, said crews were particularly interested in finding valves, parts of the doors and windows and other components that help seal the cabin.