Dehavilland DHC-3 accident near Aleknagik, AK
On August 9, 2010, a Dehavilland DHC-3 (airplane) was involved in an accident near Aleknagik, AK. 5 people died. Damage to the aircraft: substantial.
- Date
- August 9, 2010
- Place
- Aleknagik, AK
- Aircraft
- Dehavilland DHC-3 · Airplane
- Injuries
- 5 fatal, 4 serious, 0 minor
- Damage
- Substantial
- Position
- 59.324°N, 158.371°W
- NTSB ID
- 20100810X62027
Official records · ANC10MA068
- Public docket: reports, statements and exhibits from the investigation
- Investigation page: status, final report and safety recommendations
Air traffic control records
- Operations 2 - Attachment 8 - DLG Audio Highlights Aug 7 and 9: Document (PDF), on ntsb.gov
- Transcript of Radio Communications: Transcript (PDF), on ntsb.gov
- GCI Communication Corporation Submission: Document (PDF), on ntsb.gov
NTSB summary
The Safety Board’s full report is available at http://www.ntsb.gov/publictn/A_Acc1.htm. The Aircraft Accident Report number is NTSB/AAR-11/03. On August 9, 2010, about 1442 Alaska daylight time, a single-engine, turbine powered, amphibious float-equipped de Havilland DHC-3T airplane, N455A, impacted mountainous, tree-covered terrain about 10 nautical miles (nm) northeast of Aleknagik, Alaska. The airline transport pilot and four passengers received fatal injuries, and four passengers received serious injuries. The airplane sustained substantial damage, including deformation and breaching of the fuselage. The flight was operated by GCI Communication Corp. (GCI), of Anchorage, Alaska, under the provisions of 14 Code of Federal Regulations Part 91. About the time of the accident, meteorological conditions that met the criteria for marginal visual flight rules were reported at Dillingham Airport, Dillingham, Alaska, about 18 nm south of the accident site. No flight plan was filed. The flight departed about 1427 from a GCI-owned private lodge on the shore of Lake Nerka and was en route to a remote sport fishing camp about 52 nm southeast on the Nushagak River.
Probable cause
The pilot's temporary unresponsiveness for reasons that could not be established from the available information. Contributing to the investigation's inability to determine exactly what occurred in the final minutes of the flight was the lack of a cockpit recorder system with the ability to capture audio, images, and parametric data.
From Wikipedia
On August 9, 2010, a privately operated de Havilland Canada DHC-3 Otter amphibious floatplane crashed near Aleknagik, Alaska, killing five of the nine people on board. The fatalities included former U.S. Senator Ted Stevens, while the survivors included former Administrator of NASA and then-CEO of EADS North America Sean O'Keefe, his son, and future Deputy Administrator of NASA James Morhard.
The aircraft, a single-engine de Havilland Canada DHC-3 Otter registered to GCI, crashed on a mountainside while on a flight between two fishing lodges. Stevens and O'Keefe had been on a fishing trip. The wreckage was quickly located after an aerial search, but rescue efforts were hampered by poor weather.
Text from Wikipedia, “2010 Alaska DHC-3 crash”, CC BY-SA 4.0; shortened to the introduction. Authors.
More accidents in AK
- Beech 1900C, Nov 23, 1987
- Textron Aviation Inc 208B, Feb 6, 2025
- Dehavilland DHC-3, Jul 7, 2013
- Cessna 208, Oct 10, 2001
- Dehavilland DHC-3, Jun 25, 2015
Browse: Alaska · Dehavilland aircraft
Source: NTSB aviation accident database (US government, public domain). Findings may be preliminary or later revised by the NTSB. Not a complete global record.
