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Pilot Gets Prison Time For Obstructing Accident Investigation

Kate O'Connor

September 10, 2020

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Image: FAA/NTSB

A pilot has been sentenced to a year in prison for lying to federal investigators following the August 2014 crash of a Ryan Navion A during a Part 135 sightseeing flight near Coldfoot, Alaska. The instrument-rated commercial pilot, identified as Forest Kirst, and three passengers were seriously injured in the accident. One passenger died of his injuries 35 days after the crash.

According to the NTSB’s final report on the accident, Kirst initially told first responders that he had encountered a severe downdraft while approaching a mountain pass. The report states that two weeks later, he told interviewers that the accident was caused by a passenger becoming unresponsive and slumping onto the flight controls after taking a motion sickness pill. A written statement submitted about two months after the accident claimed that the crash was the result of a propeller blade separating in flight.

Kirst, the widow of the deceased passenger and the two surviving passengers filed a lawsuit in 2016 against the company that sold Kirst the propeller and propeller manufacturer Hartzell. The suit alleged that the propeller was not safe for flight and should not have been put into service. The NTSB report, which was published in March 2017, noted that evidence indicated the propeller blade separated on impact. The board found that the crash was caused by the pilot’s “improper inflight planning and improper decision to deliberately operate the airplane at low altitude in close proximity to obstructions and rising terrain.” Kirst’s lawsuit was dismissed in 2018.

The FAA revoked Kirst’s pilot certificate in March 2015. The NTSB listed the FAA’s decision to issue a Part 135 certificate to the operator in spite of “the pilot’s history of accidents, incidents, reexaminations, and checkride failures” as a contributing factor in the crash. In December 2017, Kirst was charged with of two counts of obstructing the accident investigation and one count of operating an aircraft without a valid certificate. He was convicted of both counts of obstruction and found not guilty of flying without a valid certificate in November 2019.'

Fairbanks pilot convicted of lying to investigators after fatal 2014 crash is sentenced to a year in prison


A Fairbanks pilot convicted of lying to federal investigators after a fatal Brooks Range crash in 2014 was sentenced Wednesday to spend a year in prison.

Jurors decided last fall in federal court that Forest Kirst was guilty of obstructing the crash investigations performed by the Federal Aviation Administration and National Transportation Safety Board after the crash.

In August 2014, three Canadian tourists boarded Kirst's Ryan Navion four-seater for a flightseeing tour out of Bettles.

The plane began flying too low, and "after circling over a moose in a pond, the airplane lacked the power and altitude to clear Atigun Pass," according to federal prosecutors.

The plane crashed below the Dalton Highway and above a trans-Alaska pipeline maintenance road. All four people on board were seriously injured. Passenger Darrell Spencer, 66, died just over a month after the crash from the injuries he sustained.

Federal prosecutors said that Kirst lied to investigators by misleading them about the altitude he was flying at prior to the crash and that he told several different versions about what happened just beforehand. The charges were filed in 2017, and a jury convicted him in November 2019 on two counts of obstructing the crash investigation but found him not guilty on a federal charge of flying without a valid airman's certificate.

Kirst spoke during Wednesday's hearing to deny that he lied to investigators and instead blamed the crash on a propeller he said was improperly installed and came apart during flight. Federal investigations did not show that the propeller came off during flight, but found that it had come off during the crash.

In 2016, Kirst filed a civil personal injury and wrongful death lawsuit, along with the two surviving passengers and Spencer's wife, against the company that sold him the propeller. The lawsuit was ultimately dismissed, and the group was ordered to pay $98,000 in attorney fees to the company.

Federal judge Ralph Beistline sentenced Kirst to spend a year and a day in prison, followed by three years of probation. Kirst will also pay a $5,000 fine.

Beistline said the sentence was needed to send a message to the aviation community and passengers about Alaska's commitment to safety.