This image shows the site of the August 10, 2010, accident near Aleknagik, Alaska, of a de Havilland DHC-3T Turbine Otter that killed former U.S. Senator Ted Stevens and four others. Marginal VFR was observed at a facility 18nm from the site. The NTSB lists controlled flight into terrain as the defining event, but determined the pilot's "temporary unresponsiveness for reasons that could not be established from the available information" as the probable cause.
If you’re not familiar with Alaskan aviation, an analogy might be to compare it to operations in the Lower 48, but with more weather and terrain, and fewer paved airports. Because general aviation often is literally the only transportation available, external pressures to complete a proposed flight can be much greater. Predictably, the accident rates […]
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