Taquan opererer Beaver og Turbo Otters. (Red.)
4 dead, 2 missing after midair collision in Alaska
Emergency personnel transport an injured passenger to an ambulance in Ketchikan, Alaska, Monday after two float planes collided in flight.
(CNN)At least four people are dead after two floatplanes collided in flight Monday afternoon near Ketchikan, Alaska, according to a news release from Princess Cruises.
The passengers on both planes were from the Royal Princess cruise ship, which is on a seven-day cruise.
The US Coast Guard, which is leading the investigation, told CNN it is still looking for two people.
In an earlier statement to CNN, Princess Cruise Lines said five people were dead and "one guest still unknown."
The crash took place around 1 p.m. (5 p.m. ET) when a small floatplane -- an aircraft with pontoons or floats that allow it to land on water -- operated by Taquan Air was flying a shore excursion. The flight, sold through Princess Cruises, was returning from a tour of Alaska's Misty Fjords and was carrying 10 passengers and a pilot, the news release said.
The second plane involved was carrying four passengers on an independent tour, the release said.
Nine of the passengers on the Taquan Air plane were rescued and received medical attention with one passenger's condition still unknown, the release said. The release did not state the condition of the pilot on that plane.
"We are deeply saddened to report this news and our thoughts and prayers are with those who lost their lives and the families of those impacted by today's accident. Princess Cruises is extending its full support to traveling companions of the guests involved," the company said.
Taquan Air, a regional airline based in Ketchikan, released a statement saying it was "in the midst of an active crisis response, and our focus is on assisting these passengers, the pilot, our staff, their families and loved ones, and first responders."
"Taquan Air has suspended all scheduled flights and is cooperating fully with the National Transportation Safety Board (NTSB), the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) and other authorities to examine every aspect of this event," the Taquan Air statement read.
The NTSB tweeted Monday night that it was launching a "go team" to investigate the collision.
Narrative:
Two floatplanes (a de Havilland Canada DHC-3T Vazar Turbine Otter and a de Havilland Canada DHC-2 Beaver) with eleven (DHC-3) and five occupants (DHC-2) onboard on an independent tour (DHC-2), have been involved in a mid-air collision over Coon Cove near the George Inlet area, about 8nm from Ketchikan, Alaska.
Total fate of the occupants: four killed, ten rescued (one in critical condition, three in serious and and six in fair condition) and two are missing missing.
The FAA reported that the five occupants on board the DHC-2 Beaver and one occupants from the DHC-3T Vazar Turbine Otter were unaccounted for.
Weather conditions in the area the 13 was included high overcast skies with 9 mph southeast winds.
both aircrafts are submerged in water.
Taquan Air safety record shows air tour danger in Southeast Alaska
Taquan Air was operating one of the two floatplanes that collided midair near Ketchikan Monday, leaving at least four people dead.
A search of a National Transportation Safety Board database found that Taquan Air has been involved in five other aircraft accidents in Alaska since 1992, two of which were fatal.
A 2015 LA Times article reported that, in the last 30 years, 697 floatplane accidents have killed 258 people across Alaska.
In August 2010, former Sen. Ted Stevens died when a de Havilland Otter carrying him and others to a fishing trip crashed near Dillingham.
The most recent crash involving Taquan Air, prior to Monday's collision, happened on July 10, 2018 about 9 miles west of Hydaburg. An Otter operated by Taquan was carrying 10 passengers and a pilot. The pilot told NTSB investigators that visibility decreased rapidly and he became disoriented when he tried to turn around, then crashed into snow-covered mountains. While six passengers had serious injuries, everyone on board survived.
A Taquan flight was also involved in a non-fatal accident in Ketchikan 2012. The de Havilland Beaver tipped to the side when the pilot attempted to step taxi before takeoff. The plane's wing was damaged, but none of the six people on board were injured.
On July 24, 2007 a pilot and four passengers were killed on a Taquan flight about 40 miles northeast of Ketchikan. The Otter aircraft encountered a wall of weather and mountainous terrain. An investigation found the primary cause of the crash was pilot misjudgment. Continuing poor weather kept the NTSB and Federal Aviation Administration from reaching the accident site for three days.
This crash brought up concerns that the FAA's supervision of the flight tour industry in Southeast Alaska was inadequate.
A year later, after an investigation, the NTSB issued four recommendations to the FAA:
A 1992 NTSB report describes a Taquan Air accident in Metlakatla where an Otter aircraft started vibrating on landing, but the pilot and sole person on board, was not hurt.
In a statement after Monday's collision, Taquan Air stated, "There are no words other than we are heartbroken over this loss. We are focused now on extending our full support to our passengers and their families, along with first responders and other agencies involved."
All Taquan scheduled flights are currently suspended and the company is working with the NTSB, FAA and other authorities to examine the incident.
NTSB has long cautioned Southeast flight operators, cruise lines about flightseeing safety, infrastructure (Alaska)
NTSB said the Mountain Air Services de Havilland plane was found upside down in the water. USCG photo courtesy of Ryan Sinkey.
ANCHORAGE (KTUU) - The deaths of four cruise ship passengers in 2007 during a sightseeing flight to Misty Fjords National Monument in southeast Alaska prompted terse words from the National Transportation Safety Board, which demanded safer practices. The agency wanted better weather data, better pilot training, and more rigorous oversight of air tour operators from the FAA.
At the time, Alaska's cruise ship industry was on the rise, with an estimated 900,000 cruise ship passengers expected in Ketchikan in 2007. More than a decade later, the industry remains a huge economic driver for the region.
Cruise ship passengers account for nearly 95 percent of all visitors to Ketchikan, and nearly 1,010,400 people traveled to Ketchikan by cruise ship in 2017, according to the Ketchikan Visitor's Bureau. Of those, some six percent will select flight seeing as an activity.
On July 24, 2017, declining weather conditions, described by one tour pilot as a "wall of weather" -- low clouds, rain and fog -- had hampered visibility 40 miles northeast of Ketchikan, according to an NTSB accident report. They determined that the pilot's inadequate weather evaluation, and his decision to keep flying under visual flight rules in conditions that required instruments contributed to the crash of the Taquan Air flight.
The final accident summary, published in August 2008, found probable cause as "the pilot's decision to continue under visual flight rules into an area of instrument metrological conditions. Contributing to the accident was the pilot's inadequate weather evaluation, and the FAA's inadequate surveillance of the commercial air tour operator."
The NTSB noted that the FAA had allowed the lapse of an oversight program in which staff flew unidentified as passengers on flight tours, citing in part the loss of inspectors to downsizing.
In a safety recommendation published in July 2008, the NTSB wrote "based on the preliminary findings from this investigation, and the findings from four other previous air tour accidents during the past 10 years, the Safety Board is concerned about the lack of weather information, ineffective Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) oversight of air tour operators' adherence to required weather minimums, and inadequate pilot training for commercial air tour operations in Southeast Alaska."
The NTSB asked the FAA to "develop a permanent mechanism to provide en route and ground-based observations of air tour flights in Southeast Alaska at least once a month during the tour season to ensure operators are adhering to safe flying practices."
In December of 2013, the FAA updated the NTSB on its progress, stating that as of 2010, "en route inspections of air tour operators were permanently added," and that a special surveillance indexing system would be in place for southeast Alaska.
A few months later, the NTSB acknowledged the progress, telling the FAA "we are pleased that you have incorporated surveillance activities that are unique and appropriate to the Alaska air tour environment-particularly the remote observations, which we believe sends a message to all air tour operators that the FAA is observing their operations and is not focusing solely on an individual carrier or carriers."
Mike Slack, a Texas-based aviation attorney who represents victims of a 2018 Taquan air crash in which several passengers were injured, believes air tourism in southeast Alaska needs continued improvement, citing pressures to generate revenue, get as much as they can out of the summer season, and adhere to cruise ship schedules.
"When you're dealing with common carriers that take money and are paid to transport people, whether it's a charter, a schedule airline or an air tour, there is a requisite amount of safety that the public should be able to expect that the air tour operator will exercise regardless of where they do it," Slack told KTUU.
"The fact that Alaska has mountains, that Alaska has rapidly changing weather conditions, the fact that Alaska has the challenges of remoteness and radios don't always work very well over the long distances -- those are simply factors the air tour operator ask to be built into the safety matrix to make sure they can do it safely," he said.
"We will never put our guests in harm's way and take every precaution necessary to make sure that we are making the most informed decision about flight conditions for that day," Taquan Air told KTUU through a spokesperson Wednesday, responding to Slack's criticism. "Safety is the ultimate priority."
Pilots are extensively trained, closely monitor weather conditions, fly with 4 miles of visibility, and the company has voluntarily adopted safety practices beyond those required by federal standards, Taquan said via email, adding "we use the resources available to us through this program to ensure that our pilots have what they need to operate a safe flight from takeoff to landing."
The company told KTUU that monitoring systems on its planes would be able to detect nearby aircraft. It referred questions about how a mid-air collision could occur to the NTSB, citing the ongoing investigation.
What follows is a list of known crashes departing from or bound for Ketchikan, gathered from NTSB accident records.
May 13, 2019: Planes operated by Taquan Air and Mountain Air Services collide mid-air, causing fatalities and serious injuries. The investigation is underway.
July 10, 2018: A Taquan Air De Havilland DHC-3 struck mountainous terrain, seriously injuring six passengers. Four passengers experienced minor injuries, the pilot was uninjured. The pilot had turned off the Terrain Awareness and Warning System.
June 25, 2015: A De Havilland DHC-3 operated by Promech Air, Inc., collided with mountainous terrain, killing eight passengers and the pilot. The NTSB determined probable cause as "(1) the pilot's decision to continue visual flight into an area of instrument meteorological conditions, which resulted in his geographic disorientation and controlled flight into terrain; and (2) Promech's company culture, which tacitly endorsed flying in hazardous weather and failed to manage the risks associated with the competitive pressures affecting Ketchikan-area air tour operators; its lack of a formal safety program; and its inadequate operational control of flight releases."
July 24, 2013: An engine on a DeHavilland Beaver DHC-2 operated by Promech Air LLC lost power, causing a crash landing, seriously injuring three people. The NTSB determined an equipment problem -- the failure of the linkrod or its bushing -- caused the crash.
July 2, 2012: A De Havilland Beaver DHC-2 operated by S&S Aircraft Leasing, Inc. experienced difficulty on takeoff, causing a wing to strike the water. The NTSB determined probable cause to be "the pilot's failure to maintain directional control during a step turn on floats."
July 24, 2007: A De Havilland DHC-2 operated by Venture Travel LLC (which owns Taquan Air) crashed into steep, tree-covered terrain, killing four passengers and the pilot. The NTSB determined probable cause to be "The pilot's decision to continue under visual flight rules into an area of instrument metrological conditions. Contributing to the accident was the pilot's inadequate weather evaluation, and the FAA's inadequate surveillance of the commercial air tour operator."
July 28, 2005: A De Havilland DHC-3 operated by Promech Inc.experienced a flash fire in the cockpit, causing an emergency landing. The pilot suffered burns, 10 passengers were uninjured. The NTSB's probable cause finding was "an electrical arc on the exterior of a fuel pressure line that initiated a fuel leak and fire during cruise flight, which resulted in serious injuries to the pilot as he performed an emergency landing on the water. A factor contributing to the accident was an inadequate annual inspection of the airplane by company maintenance personnel."
August 19, 2002: Two airplanes operated by ProMech, Inc., collided in mid-air when a plane gaining altitude struck a plane that had established a level path. None of the passengers or pilots were injured. The NTSB found probable cause to be "the pilot's failure to maintain an adequate visual outlook during cruise climb, which resulted in a midair collision between the two airplanes."
June 19, 2002: An idling plane hit another plane at the dock after a dockhand prematurely let go of a mooring rope. The NTSB found probable cause to be "The failure of a ground handler to follow company procedures/directives, and his premature release of a mooring line. Factors associated with the accident were the congested operations area, and the operator's failure to provide adequate safe zones for the airplanes."
Dec. 12, 1996: A Taquan Air De Havilland DHC-2 crashed into the water, killing the pilot. The NTSB determined "the pilot's inadequate compensation for wind conditions, and failure to maintain adequate airspeed, which resulted in an inadvertent stall and collision with terrain (water). A factor associated with the accident was the gusty wind condition."
June 8, 1994: The wing of a Taquan Air Cessna 185 struck rough water in Kassan Bay. The NTSB determined probable cause as "the pilot's inadequate compensation for the wind."
June 4, 1992: Rivets failed on a Taquan Air De Havilland DHC-3, causing the airplane's control yoke to vibrate and the nose to pitch down.
| Date: | 13-MAY-2019 |
| Time: | 13:08 |
| Type: |  de Havilland Canada DHC-2 Beaver |
| Owner/operator: | Mountain Air Service LLC |
| Registration: | N952DB |
| C/n / msn: | 237 |
| Fatalities: | Fatalities: 5 / Occupants: 5 |
| Aircraft damage: | Written off (damaged beyond repair) |
| Location: | Coon Cove near George Inlet area, about 8nm from Ketchikan, AK -  United States of America |
| Phase: | Manoeuvring (airshow, firefighting, ag.ops.) |
| Nature: | Non Scheduled Passenger |
| Departure airport: | |
Two floatplanes (a de Havilland Canada DHC-3T Vazar Turbine Otter and a de Havilland Canada DHC-2 Beaver) with eleven (DHC-3) and five occupants (DHC-2) onboard on an independent tour (DHC-2), have been involved in a mid-air collision over Coon Cove near the George Inlet area, about 8nm from Ketchikan, Alaska.
Total fate of the occupants: four killed, ten rescued (one in critical condition, three in serious and and six in fair condition) and two are missing missing.
The FAA reported that the five occupants on board the DHC-2 Beaver and one occupants from the DHC-3T Vazar Turbine Otter were unaccounted for.
Weather conditions in the area the 13 was included high overcast skies with 9 mph southeast winds.
both aircrafts are submerged in water.
Taquan Air safety record shows air tour danger in Southeast Alaska
Taquan Air was operating one of the two floatplanes that collided midair near Ketchikan Monday, leaving at least four people dead.
A search of a National Transportation Safety Board database found that Taquan Air has been involved in five other aircraft accidents in Alaska since 1992, two of which were fatal.
A 2015 LA Times article reported that, in the last 30 years, 697 floatplane accidents have killed 258 people across Alaska.
In August 2010, former Sen. Ted Stevens died when a de Havilland Otter carrying him and others to a fishing trip crashed near Dillingham.
The most recent crash involving Taquan Air, prior to Monday's collision, happened on July 10, 2018 about 9 miles west of Hydaburg. An Otter operated by Taquan was carrying 10 passengers and a pilot. The pilot told NTSB investigators that visibility decreased rapidly and he became disoriented when he tried to turn around, then crashed into snow-covered mountains. While six passengers had serious injuries, everyone on board survived.
A Taquan flight was also involved in a non-fatal accident in Ketchikan 2012. The de Havilland Beaver tipped to the side when the pilot attempted to step taxi before takeoff. The plane's wing was damaged, but none of the six people on board were injured.
On July 24, 2007 a pilot and four passengers were killed on a Taquan flight about 40 miles northeast of Ketchikan. The Otter aircraft encountered a wall of weather and mountainous terrain. An investigation found the primary cause of the crash was pilot misjudgment. Continuing poor weather kept the NTSB and Federal Aviation Administration from reaching the accident site for three days.
This crash brought up concerns that the FAA's supervision of the flight tour industry in Southeast Alaska was inadequate.
A year later, after an investigation, the NTSB issued four recommendations to the FAA:
- Install and maintain weather cameras at critical areas of tour routes.
- Establish monthly ground and en route inspections of air tour flights to observe and enforce safe-flying practices.
- Provide training for commercial air tour pilots in responding to changing local weather conditions.
- Require pilots to take the training.
A 1992 NTSB report describes a Taquan Air accident in Metlakatla where an Otter aircraft started vibrating on landing, but the pilot and sole person on board, was not hurt.
In a statement after Monday's collision, Taquan Air stated, "There are no words other than we are heartbroken over this loss. We are focused now on extending our full support to our passengers and their families, along with first responders and other agencies involved."
All Taquan scheduled flights are currently suspended and the company is working with the NTSB, FAA and other authorities to examine the incident.
NTSB has long cautioned Southeast flight operators, cruise lines about flightseeing safety, infrastructure (Alaska)
NTSB said the Mountain Air Services de Havilland plane was found upside down in the water. USCG photo courtesy of Ryan Sinkey.
ANCHORAGE (KTUU) - The deaths of four cruise ship passengers in 2007 during a sightseeing flight to Misty Fjords National Monument in southeast Alaska prompted terse words from the National Transportation Safety Board, which demanded safer practices. The agency wanted better weather data, better pilot training, and more rigorous oversight of air tour operators from the FAA.
At the time, Alaska's cruise ship industry was on the rise, with an estimated 900,000 cruise ship passengers expected in Ketchikan in 2007. More than a decade later, the industry remains a huge economic driver for the region.
Cruise ship passengers account for nearly 95 percent of all visitors to Ketchikan, and nearly 1,010,400 people traveled to Ketchikan by cruise ship in 2017, according to the Ketchikan Visitor's Bureau. Of those, some six percent will select flight seeing as an activity.
On July 24, 2017, declining weather conditions, described by one tour pilot as a "wall of weather" -- low clouds, rain and fog -- had hampered visibility 40 miles northeast of Ketchikan, according to an NTSB accident report. They determined that the pilot's inadequate weather evaluation, and his decision to keep flying under visual flight rules in conditions that required instruments contributed to the crash of the Taquan Air flight.
The final accident summary, published in August 2008, found probable cause as "the pilot's decision to continue under visual flight rules into an area of instrument metrological conditions. Contributing to the accident was the pilot's inadequate weather evaluation, and the FAA's inadequate surveillance of the commercial air tour operator."
The NTSB noted that the FAA had allowed the lapse of an oversight program in which staff flew unidentified as passengers on flight tours, citing in part the loss of inspectors to downsizing.
In a safety recommendation published in July 2008, the NTSB wrote "based on the preliminary findings from this investigation, and the findings from four other previous air tour accidents during the past 10 years, the Safety Board is concerned about the lack of weather information, ineffective Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) oversight of air tour operators' adherence to required weather minimums, and inadequate pilot training for commercial air tour operations in Southeast Alaska."
The NTSB asked the FAA to "develop a permanent mechanism to provide en route and ground-based observations of air tour flights in Southeast Alaska at least once a month during the tour season to ensure operators are adhering to safe flying practices."
In December of 2013, the FAA updated the NTSB on its progress, stating that as of 2010, "en route inspections of air tour operators were permanently added," and that a special surveillance indexing system would be in place for southeast Alaska.
A few months later, the NTSB acknowledged the progress, telling the FAA "we are pleased that you have incorporated surveillance activities that are unique and appropriate to the Alaska air tour environment-particularly the remote observations, which we believe sends a message to all air tour operators that the FAA is observing their operations and is not focusing solely on an individual carrier or carriers."
Mike Slack, a Texas-based aviation attorney who represents victims of a 2018 Taquan air crash in which several passengers were injured, believes air tourism in southeast Alaska needs continued improvement, citing pressures to generate revenue, get as much as they can out of the summer season, and adhere to cruise ship schedules.
"When you're dealing with common carriers that take money and are paid to transport people, whether it's a charter, a schedule airline or an air tour, there is a requisite amount of safety that the public should be able to expect that the air tour operator will exercise regardless of where they do it," Slack told KTUU.
"The fact that Alaska has mountains, that Alaska has rapidly changing weather conditions, the fact that Alaska has the challenges of remoteness and radios don't always work very well over the long distances -- those are simply factors the air tour operator ask to be built into the safety matrix to make sure they can do it safely," he said.
"We will never put our guests in harm's way and take every precaution necessary to make sure that we are making the most informed decision about flight conditions for that day," Taquan Air told KTUU through a spokesperson Wednesday, responding to Slack's criticism. "Safety is the ultimate priority."
Pilots are extensively trained, closely monitor weather conditions, fly with 4 miles of visibility, and the company has voluntarily adopted safety practices beyond those required by federal standards, Taquan said via email, adding "we use the resources available to us through this program to ensure that our pilots have what they need to operate a safe flight from takeoff to landing."
The company told KTUU that monitoring systems on its planes would be able to detect nearby aircraft. It referred questions about how a mid-air collision could occur to the NTSB, citing the ongoing investigation.
What follows is a list of known crashes departing from or bound for Ketchikan, gathered from NTSB accident records.
May 13, 2019: Planes operated by Taquan Air and Mountain Air Services collide mid-air, causing fatalities and serious injuries. The investigation is underway.
July 10, 2018: A Taquan Air De Havilland DHC-3 struck mountainous terrain, seriously injuring six passengers. Four passengers experienced minor injuries, the pilot was uninjured. The pilot had turned off the Terrain Awareness and Warning System.
June 25, 2015: A De Havilland DHC-3 operated by Promech Air, Inc., collided with mountainous terrain, killing eight passengers and the pilot. The NTSB determined probable cause as "(1) the pilot's decision to continue visual flight into an area of instrument meteorological conditions, which resulted in his geographic disorientation and controlled flight into terrain; and (2) Promech's company culture, which tacitly endorsed flying in hazardous weather and failed to manage the risks associated with the competitive pressures affecting Ketchikan-area air tour operators; its lack of a formal safety program; and its inadequate operational control of flight releases."
July 24, 2013: An engine on a DeHavilland Beaver DHC-2 operated by Promech Air LLC lost power, causing a crash landing, seriously injuring three people. The NTSB determined an equipment problem -- the failure of the linkrod or its bushing -- caused the crash.
July 2, 2012: A De Havilland Beaver DHC-2 operated by S&S Aircraft Leasing, Inc. experienced difficulty on takeoff, causing a wing to strike the water. The NTSB determined probable cause to be "the pilot's failure to maintain directional control during a step turn on floats."
July 24, 2007: A De Havilland DHC-2 operated by Venture Travel LLC (which owns Taquan Air) crashed into steep, tree-covered terrain, killing four passengers and the pilot. The NTSB determined probable cause to be "The pilot's decision to continue under visual flight rules into an area of instrument metrological conditions. Contributing to the accident was the pilot's inadequate weather evaluation, and the FAA's inadequate surveillance of the commercial air tour operator."
July 28, 2005: A De Havilland DHC-3 operated by Promech Inc.experienced a flash fire in the cockpit, causing an emergency landing. The pilot suffered burns, 10 passengers were uninjured. The NTSB's probable cause finding was "an electrical arc on the exterior of a fuel pressure line that initiated a fuel leak and fire during cruise flight, which resulted in serious injuries to the pilot as he performed an emergency landing on the water. A factor contributing to the accident was an inadequate annual inspection of the airplane by company maintenance personnel."
August 19, 2002: Two airplanes operated by ProMech, Inc., collided in mid-air when a plane gaining altitude struck a plane that had established a level path. None of the passengers or pilots were injured. The NTSB found probable cause to be "the pilot's failure to maintain an adequate visual outlook during cruise climb, which resulted in a midair collision between the two airplanes."
June 19, 2002: An idling plane hit another plane at the dock after a dockhand prematurely let go of a mooring rope. The NTSB found probable cause to be "The failure of a ground handler to follow company procedures/directives, and his premature release of a mooring line. Factors associated with the accident were the congested operations area, and the operator's failure to provide adequate safe zones for the airplanes."
Dec. 12, 1996: A Taquan Air De Havilland DHC-2 crashed into the water, killing the pilot. The NTSB determined "the pilot's inadequate compensation for wind conditions, and failure to maintain adequate airspeed, which resulted in an inadvertent stall and collision with terrain (water). A factor associated with the accident was the gusty wind condition."
June 8, 1994: The wing of a Taquan Air Cessna 185 struck rough water in Kassan Bay. The NTSB determined probable cause as "the pilot's inadequate compensation for the wind."
June 4, 1992: Rivets failed on a Taquan Air De Havilland DHC-3, causing the airplane's control yoke to vibrate and the nose to pitch down.
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