Ness

Ness is a treasure hunter currently operating in the Commonwealth

Background
Ness hired a group of mercenaries to launch an attack on the raiders occupying the wreck of Skylanes Flight 1981, so they could sell the scrap. After the Sole Survivor helps her clear out the raiders, it is revealed that the real reason for attacking the plane was to get access to a secret compartment in the cargo section under the cockpit. Ness had discovered that Skylanes used their passenger flights to cover up a large smuggling operation, and is in posession of the key that opens the compartment containing the smuggled wares.

If one elects to kill her instead of helping her, the key can be looted from her corpse.

Quests

 * Meet Ness at the Crash Site: The meeting with Ness is a random encounter and therefore can occur anywhere, though it is more likely on roads.

Other interactions

 * Opening the hidden compartment before allowing Ness to open it will immediately turn Ness and the other mercenaries hostile and cancel the quest.
 * If the secret compartment has already been opened on both flights, Ness will say that the player character has saved her time and that she will need to find another prospect, just saying "See you around" after ending dialogue.

Appearances
Ness appears only in Fallout 4.

Bugs

 * Ness might get pulled into the "Quick test cell" limbo and will become hostile with other characters in this box with her. Any non-essential NPC may be killed.
 * When helping her clean the plane from raiders, if you leave her waiting to finish a quest then come back later, she will not initiate dialogue again even though the quest marker still marks her supposed location. Pickpocketing and reading Ness' lead note from her may resolve this issue, though this may not work on PC.
 * Ness may become hostile to any nearby settlers and provisioners, making it difficult or impossible to trigger the quest as dialogue cannot be initiated. Since Ness, settlers and provisioners are all essential there will be no casualties, and they may go separate ways after a few minutes.
 * If a companion is dismissed at a crash site, the companion may become hostile towards Ness or any of the Gunners nearby.
 * Ness may stand a few yards away from the location marker near the crash site and can not be interacted with. It is possible to pickpocket key to loot cargo but no experience will be gained. No Gunners will be present.
 * If Dogmeat is a companion while on the path to Fort Hagen in the quest Reunions and finds Ness, Dogmeat will be hostile towards her.