Alaska: PenAir loses one

[Baradium]

Local 135 carrier PenAir lost a Cherokee 6 last week.   Single pilot and passenger on board fatal.

http://www.adn.com/news/alaska/aviation/story/8497122p-8390431c.html

Two die in Port Heiden plane crash
PENAIR: Single-engine Piper was on way to King Salmon with pilot, passenger aboard.

By MARY PEMBERTON
The Associated Press

Published: December 16, 2006
Last Modified: December 16, 2006 at 02:59 AM


Two people were killed when a small plane crashed near Port Heiden on the Alaska Peninsula, the Coast Guard said Friday.


The wreckage of the PenAir plane was found Thursday night by a Coast Guard helicopter crew sent to the site after the plane was reported overdue and a signal from an emergency beacon was received. A second PenAir flight also was sent to help out.

Late Friday troopers said Andrew Simonds, 25, of Anchorage was the pilot. Renee Matson, 45, was listed as the only passenger.

The state medical examiner will perform autopsies on the victims and confirm their identification, Alaska State Troopers said.

The wreckage of the six-seat Piper Cherokee was spotted by a Coast Guard helicopter crew in slightly hilly terrain about 18 northeast of Port Heiden. The single engine, propeller-driven airplane crashed on land about 4 miles from shore, said Lt. Mara Booth-Miller with the Coast Guard in Juneau.

The plane had left Port Heiden for King Salmon about 150 miles away. An emergency beacon directed the Coast Guard Command Center in Juneau to the location northeast of Port Heiden. The signal from the plane's emergency beacon was received about 6:30 p.m. Thursday.

Authorities were told 30 minutes later that the PenAir plane was overdue. The wreckage was spotted about four hours later.

There were only routine communications between the pilot and the ground before the crash, according to Danny Seybert, president of PenAir.

The pilot had been working with the company for three years.

"Our thoughts and prayers are with the families of the deceased," Seybert said. "We feel a great sense of loss."

The cause of the crash was not immediately known, the Coast Guard said.

It also was not known if weather was a factor, Booth-Miller said. The weather at the time of the crash was mostly cloudy with winds gusting to 29 mph and 6 miles visibility.

Port Heiden is a community of about 90 on the north side of the Alaska Peninsula 425 miles southwest of Anchorage.

Plans were to retrieve the bodies as soon as possible from the crash site. However, Booth-Miller said bad weather was moving into the area so there could be a delay.

Current rumor around here is that they were in bad weather at low altitude (not unusual at all for part 135 in Alaska).  Added on is that it was at night, and in a hilly area.  He probobly never saw it coming.   135 carriers here routinely legallly fly at 500 ft AGL, especially in flat terrain.

[Gulfstream Driver]

That's too bad.

[tundra_flier]

Very Sad, but Probably a correct rumor.  The leading cause of fatalities in Alaska is controlled flight into terrain.  Mainly part 135 carriers scud running because the FAA doesn't allow them to fly IFR in single piston planes.  I know a couple years ago the Alaskan Airmans Association was lobbying for an alaskan exemption to that rule.

Phil

[Baradium]

Very Sad, but Probably a correct rumor.  The leading cause of fatalities in Alaska is controlled flight into terrain.  Mainly part 135 carriers scud running because the FAA doesn't allow them to fly IFR in single piston planes.  I know a couple years ago the Alaskan Airmans Association was lobbying for an alaskan exemption to that rule.

Phil

There are Alaskan exemptions to so many rules.   Honestly, most of these 135 carriers would still go VFR unless the regulations *required* them to go IFR.  There are many airports still that don't have instrument approaches anyway, and even these airports that do, the 135 guys get in and out at weather at or below what you could get in with IFR anyway many times (not always, but many times).  I've been stuck on the ground in Nome before due to weather that wouldn't have let us back into Nome if we'd left... and the 135 guys were going in and out as if nothing was different.  Granted, the ILS was OTS, but the GPS approaches don't keep you *that* high.

Not all 135 aircraft are single engine pistons either.  You'll see twins doing the same thing.  They are allowed to go IFR, but while they have a choice, they usually don't do it.  IFR takes longer and means only one aircraft can leave at a time, they prefer to be able to have everyone coming in and out at the same time VFR.  That doesn't mean that no one does it, but even among those that are allowed to, many choose to remain VFR and scud run.   

That change in the regulations isn't going to change much even if it does happen IMO.  When it comes down to it, there are many airports in Alaska that really need control towers, especially if 135 operators are going to start going IFR, but I don't see them getting them anytime real soon.  135 guys are implicitly allowed to do stuff up here that'd have you violated in a second even part 91 in the lower 48.   I'd be surprised to see much change in accident rates by allowing 135 VFR ops with single engine aircraft.

[tundra_flier]

I believe the Alaskan Airmans idea was that by allowing the single engine piston 135 guys to go IFR without being penalized, it would give them another option in case the ceiling or vis dropped to zero.  Then they could at least climb, file IFR and get back to Bethel or Nome, or whatever IFR equiped runway was available.

Phil

[Baradium]

I believe the Alaskan Airmans idea was that by allowing the single engine piston 135 guys to go IFR without being penalized, it would give them another option in case the ceiling or vis dropped to zero.  Then they could at least climb, file IFR and get back to Bethel or Nome, or whatever IFR equiped runway was available.

Phil

Still don't think it'd change much, just based on how the 135 guys that are allowed to file operate.