Alaska Float Plane crash kills five

This is a big deal.   Strikes close to home, and impacts many lives.


GCI Otter Crash in Alaska kills five

Sorry Northern, but this is just another sad chapter in aviation in Alaska. Back in the 70's when I was with NPS we lost just about an entire Regional Office staff in one of these. Senator Stevens is not even the first member or former member of Congress killed in an Alaskan air crash.

It's weather, it's terrain, it's a lot of stuff. What it is NOT is safe in many instances.

Fly safe my friend.
MLB

I am crushed.  I found out a 40 year friend, and one of in my opinion the most exprienced, talented and safe pilot  that I know, was a passenger in the same plane, and died with Senator Stevens.  He very well could have been up front. 

I am waiting to hear, and am afraid to hear, about if one of my other long term friends was the pilot.  I have heard details about the circumstances, and it was very ugly, I am not sharing.

Lots of tears today, and I have a HUGE meeting in 90 minutes from now and I am a chocolate mess emotionally.

 

Sorry for your loss. I was just in Alaska yesterday and read on a menu that Alaska has more pilots per capita than anywhere else in the US by a huge margin. I wondered to myself how safe it was with the clouds and the mountains that I witnessed.

Second crash for the Senator, not as lucky this time. RIP.

The grief I'm having with navigating this new board is certainely miniscule to the grief your feeling now! It took me forever to express my heart-felt sympathy to you and yours, for the loss of Ted Stevens, and your pilot friend. Please accept my, and our families deepest sympathies to you and yours, in the wake of this event. Through your awesome photo journels in the past, I've learned that flying in Alaska, is as commom as driving in the lower 48! Ever present danger! Prayers will be on-board to you, your friends,and the families of the deceased, along with all the pilots, that ply your vast wonderland, ~Scotty 

I started flying at 16, had a plane in High School, got my Pilot's license on my 17th Birthday, the first day I could legally. 

I found out my good friend Theron (Terry) Ackerly Smith, was the pilot...  This is almost unimaginable that he would have flown into terrain.   TAS, or "True Airspeed" as we call him was the best of the best.  The last person on planet earth I would suspect would do so.   He just went out to fill in for GCI as their pilot had quit.  Terry had a 30,000 hour plus airline career, and was the one who did FAA safety seminars on float flying for the last decade.   Terry, godspeed and tailwinds my friend.

The last time I met Senator Stevens, was April 2006 when I was on the same flight from DC coming back to Anchorage.  I got 5 minutes of his time before the flight, and spoke to him about Cadastral Survey, CFeDS, the BILS and the role he played in supporting these endeavors.  We also talked about my Dad, who had recently passed and was a 48 mission B-24 gunner, which was a miracle.   Later when I got back to my seat, I was seated next to a blind man with a guard dog.  He too was a WWII vet, and I told him that Senator Ted was on the plane.  Well, I could not stand it, so I wrote a note about this man, and asked the Flight Attendant to deliver it to Senator Stevens not wanting to venture into First Class and get mistaken for a threat.  About 5 minutes later, Senator Stevens comes back, thanks me, and chats with the blind Veteran in the galley for 20 minutes.  No handshake and leave.  Even the fact that he came back in the plane cabin was impressive.  I followed up with a letter to him and the local newspaper about this one act of kindness.

Senator Ted, you were a kind man, a real person, and a Senator always for Alaska and our Nation.  This is going to be a long week for me.

Michael,

Extremely sorry to learn the tragic news of your pilot friend's death.

You better get up in the air yourself, sooner rather tha later for a short flight.

Cheers from DU Mate.

RADU

Richard, this keeps getting worse.  One of my best friends, who use to be partners with me in the engineering company I worked with, just called me and told me that he and his wife were real close friends with Dana and her daughter that were also killed.... 

It is fogged in and raining again in Anchorage right now.  I am getting damn tired of fighting this weather this summer, I may stay on the ground and drink scotch instead.  I have a funeral for another pilot, who again was a super guy on Saturday.  I have lost five friends this week, three in airplanes, two drowned.

It really has to be tough for you Northern that has good personal friends that died in the crash.  I only have a slight personal interest in the fact that Sean made it ok, at least what we hear so far.

Tough day for all in Alaska and especially those who know flying.

Keith

My condolences, Northern. What an awful week.

Hang in there,

Rick

Gee Northern. What a tragic week all around. Condolences indeed. 

One thing I have noticed watching those that live and prosper in Alaska is they seem to live more adventures in one year than some some in an entire lifetime. God speed to their souls. 

Heard about this while I was in PHX airport yesterday.  My condolences and prayers are with you today, Northern.

Thanks everyone for comments here, and directly sent.  Met with families last night.  Heart wrenching. 

I'm doing better, and everyone is working through things at their own pace.

I'm with you, Mike.  Uncle Ted was  a family friend and my whole family mourns the loss, as well as the others on the plane. Hang in there, this too shall pass.

-JD-

A really well done article about flying in Alaska, and my friend Terry.  I am quoted.

edited link:

ALASKA DISPATCH



We are all going forward.  Senator Steven's funeral this Wednesday. 

John Graybill, and his wife Dolly.  Found today, but probably crashed a few days ago.  The media does not know the details of who.  Their dog was at the plane alive, they both dead.  Same plane as mine.  John started flying in the 50s, and just turned 80.  Big Game guide, and go anywhere bush pilot.  RIP...

John Graybill Crash

Graybill Story 1970

Ironic, and scary recent comparison of Smith crash and Graybill


I will not have time to go fly due to all of the funerals to attend.  Tomorrow, Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday, and who knows when for John.

At home by the fire tonight.... rain and foggy Friday the 13th.

When is this all going to get back to normal from unbelievable?

Thanks for the links Michael. Truly a bad month for flying in Alaska. It appears that you have only had 10 clear days all summer.

I love the travel shows about Alaska and they all seem to feature airplanes. I suppose some just do not realize that flying is about the only way to get from some places or to bring in supplies. I would bet that the hours per capita exceeds anyplace else in CONUS. Toss in the unpredictable weather and like Ted said in an old interview. Plane crashes are just a part of Alaskan life.

Take care. I know it's been a very trying week for you and your family of friends.

Deral

I did enjoy some of the comments on one of the links from pilots in the bush and those familiar, like yourself, with the terrain and weather. They were quick to not point fingers at anyone but had some rational statements on overall flying conditions and instrumentation.

Thanks Deral.  It was odd not to fly on a day off of the regular job today. 

I was reading some more this morning on general aviation in clouds and the lack of visibility. Losing the horizon was mentioned many times and that sometimes a pilot will pull up on the stick and actually dive right into the ground because of a lack of orientation.  

I've seen the gauge that you look at to determine the tilt. I wonder why there hasn't been something developed to help in the actual orientation of the plane with the gravity surface below.  Maybe it's too expensive or the gravity is to sensitive but it would seem plausable to develop a gauge that could monitor the gravity and help the pilot in a white out condition.

Or maybe something that once you take off and achieve a level flight that you zero out and then it using a gyro or something would monitor all the motion of the plane during the flight and keep track of where 'UP' is. I'm probably missing some key things. I'm not a pilot but it sure seems like this is one of the more difficult things when you have no visual feedback.

Deral

Deral,

It Artificial Horizon Instrument (AHI) does show the attitude of the aircraft relative to gravity in 3 dimensions.   It is based on three gyroscopes in the instrument, generally vacuum driven.  However, it is not related to the terrain.  For that there is instrumentation where the aircraft positioning system (typically GPS now-days) integrates the aircraft location, altitude and heading to essentially a DTM that is the ground proximity software.  These have gone from systems that were very expensive, to simple GPS receivers line the Garmin 286/386/486.   There also are radar altimeters (much like the original laser profilers used for mapping that were pre-cursor to LIDAR).  The AHI is the primary instrument in instrument flying, and typically the vacuum driven one is backed up by a smaller electric driven one as there were many accidents in GA aircraft when there was a vacuum pump failure (vacuum pumps are reliable as a candle in an Oklahoma wind).  Many vacuum pumps have failed in under 300 hours.  I have a vacuum AHI in my cub, many do not.  I have never had a vacuum pump failure on the cub, but have when flying Navajo (twin engine) in clouds from Little Rock to Dallas.  In that case I had no backup electric AHI, but had to resort to "partial panel" procedures, and fly in the clouds and an instrument approach without it.  VERY difficult, but obviously do-able, and you receive training when getting an instrument rating, and have to demon state ability to do so on the Instrument rating check-ride.  Like everything though, if you havn't done it for awhile, ah...... how good is your memory and skill to repeat it.  Kinda rambled here.   Technology is there, it has come WAY down in price, size and complexity, and most people have taken advantage of that and have equipped themselves for it.   However, when "scud-running" at low altitude and poor visibility, your attention needs to be nearly 95% looking out the windshield, not at things in the dash.  Once you commit to abandon visual flight, this switches, and you focus only on the instruments.

Michael,

Will this spate of tragedies cause a few bush pilots like yourself to consider stop piloting and or flying or is flying a vital Alaskan way of life?


RADU

Absolutely not for me, and I expect not for others.   Piloting is about what you do, not others.   I would feel like I had lost a limb  without the ability to fly myself.

I firmly believe it is safer to make the flights I do, than drive the highways or other streets in Alaska in an auto, no question safer than a motorcycle. 

In actually, the number of loss lives this year in Alaska due to aircraft accidents is in the normal range.  The difference is we have a group all at once, and all involving very experienced pilots.  I have never seen that before.  These accidents will have an effect of having people think about what they are doing.

ADN story on effect of accidents

The link shown above is an article in the paper today about the same question you are asking

Mike, Thanks. a good article.

Statistics have  median and 1 and 2 standard deviations.....


RADU