The feathered prop tells us they were conscious
Don't understand how you come to that conclusion, the PT-6 prop will go to the feather position in the event of an engine failure under the action of the feathering spring and counter weights as oil pressure in the servo decreases. If manually feathering the servo pressure is dumped immediately where as in an engine failure case, and the feathering is not done manually, the prop will move to towards the feather as servo pressure slowly bleeds off.
https://www.flight-mechanic.com/prat...peller-system/