This story is very sad. But also, strangely, extremely patriotic.

Investigators have reported that an Anchorage, Alaska plane crash that killed four people last month occurred because the aircraft hit a bald eagle.

According to a spokesman for the National Transportation Safety Board (NTSB), it was the first time a civilian plane has crashed and ended in casualties on account of America’s majestic airborne mascot that they know of. They said bald eagles have only caused injuries before the April incident.

This from WRAL:

The pilot, co-pilot and two passengers died when the plane went down April 20 near a small airport about 20 miles north of downtown Anchorage. They were conducting an aerial survey for a private firm.

Investigators found an unidentified substance on several portions of the plane’s frame and sent samples to the Smithsonian Institute in Washington, D.C., for forensic analysis.

“There, they were able to determine that the portions of feather and other material came from an immature bald eagle,” Williams said.

Killed in the crash were the pilot, George Kobelnyk, 64; co-pilot, Christian Bohrer, 20; and two passengers, Sarah Glaves, 36, and Kyle Braun, 27. The pilot was formerly with the NTSB and retired from the Federal Aviation Authority, Williams said.

The passengers were in the air to taking photographs of the nearby area, which included Cook Inlet.

Alaska has the largest population of bald eagles in all of North America. Scientists estimate that there are about 30,000 of the birds in “The Last Frontier State”.