Thousands of dollars could be spent as officials at the Department of Civil Aviation continue their investigations into Sunday afternoon's plane crash on Abaco, according to a civil aviation official.Eugene Butler, acting director at the Department of Civil Aviation, confirmed toGuardian Businessthat the entire investigation could be quite expensive.

He noted that international colleagues, including the plane's manufacturer, are assisting local officials with their investigations.

"Investigations could run us into thousands of dollars because there are a lot of factors involved, especially when you look at investigators coming in from abroad, having to take parts of the aircraft and then ship [them] back out to the manufacturer," Butler said.

"That's part of the process anytime we have a crash like that; we always have assistance from the NTSB (National Transportation Safety Board). We have an agreement where they would assist us wherever needed.

"Right now, we are just in the preliminary stages of our investigation, in terms of getting investigators to the site to comb through the wreckage and the site itself. Then we will interview eyewitnesses."

The six-seater plane crashed around 1:33 p.m. in bushes north of the Treasure Cay airport's runway, killing two men and two women.

The travelers--married couples--were en route to Fort Pierce, Florida from Treasure Cay, authorities said. The victims were identified as Gregory Schwartzenberger, 60; Janice Schwartzenberger, 56; Dennis Sartoris, 61 and Janie Sartoris, 56, all Florida residents.

SkyBahamas Airlines CEO Randy Butler reiterated how costly it can be to conduct a plane crash investigation, especially a fatal one.

Butler spoke of the need for funds to be set aside in cases of unfortunate incidents like these.

"I talk about having a cost recovery when airlines are certified. You have to manage the industry and one of those things that[should be]covered[is]accident investigation,"he said

"For example, we need to make sure that we have an accident investigation unit, a department that deals specifically with that. That's something that we do not have. We have some semblance they say. However, we do not have dedicated accident investigators where that's all that they do."

Butler also stressed the importance of stakeholders in the aviation sector receiving official accident reports.

"One of the things though, when accidents happen, the investigators do a report and that report is supposed to help us to make sure that any indicators of things that are systemic or that may cause things, that these other operators know, see it and avoid it,"he said.

"It's unfortunate that we do not get these accident reports. We continue to call on the government to make sure that we have these reports, so we put the proper measures in place to prevent it from happening again."

Butler said the formal report from the fatal Lake Killarney crash in 2010 when nine people died has yet to be released.

Meantime, officials at the Department of Civil Aviation said it may take some time before there are definitive answers as to what caused Sunday's fatal crash.

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