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By DAN ELLIOTT and BEN NEARY, Associated Press


      CHEYENNE, Wyo. (AP) - The pilot of a single-engine airplane was
struggling to get over Wyoming's highest mountains in bad weather
before it crashed and killed the pilot and three of his young sons,
a voice recording shows.


      Luke Bucklin of Minneapolis said in the radio call to ground
controllers just before the crash that his aircraft might not reach
16,000 feet, the altitude he was assigned by an air traffic
controller.


      "Descending rapidly," the pilot says on the recording.


      "Reporting severe mountain waves," he said about a minute
later, referring to powerful up-and-down wind currents over the
peaks. "Probably going to (garble)."


      It was the last audible transmission from Bucklin on the
recording obtained from the Federal Aviation Administration by The
Associated Press through a Freedom of Information Act request.


      Preliminary investigative reports indicate the last transmission
came around the time the plane crashed Oct. 25 in the Wind River
Range of northwest Wyoming.

      Bucklin, 40, was killed, along with his 14-year-old twins, Nate
and Nick, and 12-year-old son, Noah. They were on their way home
from a wedding.


      A weeklong search located their bodies and the wreckage on a
mountainside at about 11,100 feet. They were six miles southeast of
Gannett Peak, Wyoming's highest point at just over 13,800 feet.


      National Transportation Safety Board investigators haven't
disclosed the cause of the crash.


      It was snowing heavily when the Mooney M20J took off from
Jackson, Wyo., airport manager Ray Bishop said. It crashed less
than an hour later.


      A preliminary NTSB report said Bucklin radioed about 41 minutes
after takeoff that the plane had a trace of ice and had encountered
light turbulence.


      The plane was approaching the Wind Rivers about 10 minutes later
when Bucklin reported reaching 14,500 feet, well below the altitude
assigned by the ground controller.


      "We're getting a low rate of climb and may not be able to
achieve one-six-thousand," Bucklin said on the tape.


      About two minutes later, Bucklin reported the "severe mountain
waves" and told the controller the plane was in descending fast.
The NTSB said the controller lost radio and radar contact with the
plane shortly after.


      Veteran Wyoming aviators say conditions can be treacherous over
mountains.


      Pilots in small planes often have little time to respond in
critical situations, said Cale Case, a pilot and Wyoming state
senator who lives in Lander, on the east side of the Wind Rivers.


      "You've really got to make a lot of decisions there in a hurry,
and you're probably going to screw it up," he said.


      About two months after the Bucklins crashed, a single-engine
Aerocommander 114B went down in the Wind Rivers, roughly 40 miles
southeast of where the Bucklins were found. Killed in that wreck
were three members of a Jasper, Texas, family: the pilot,
56-year-old Ralph Day, his wife, 42-year-old Doris Day, and their
son Connor, 12.


      The Bucklin family had been in Jackson for a wedding and a
vacation, friends said. Luke Bucklin's wife, Ginger Bucklin, and
the couple's youngest son flew home separately on a commercial
flight.


      Luke Bucklin and the three other sons planned to fly to Pierre,
S.D., on the first leg of their trip home, the NTSB said in a
preliminary report.


      The forecast warned of turbulence, potential ice buildup and
clouds obscuring mountain peaks, the NTSB said, and Bucklin's
flight plan indicated he planned to fly by instruments because
visibility was poor.


      Bucklin's pilot license was current and he was qualified to fly
by instruments, the NTSB said.


      Bucklin was president and co-founder of Sierra Bravo Corp., a
Web development company based in Bloomington, a Minneapolis suburb.

Gallery

Ginger Bucklin says family overwhelmed by support during tragedy

NTSB: Pilot battled to keep altitude before crash in Wyoming mountains

Wyo. sheriff: No survivors in crash of small plane

Search continues in Wyo. for missing plane

No sign of Minn. family or plane in Wyo. mountains

Disasters

The pilot of a single-engine airplane was struggling to get over Wyoming's highest mountains in bad weather before it crashed and killed the pilot and three of his young sons, a voice recording shows.

Audio gives details of Luke Bucklin plane crash

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