Air accident involving a Reims-Cessna F406 operated by Hageland Aviation Services
| Air accident involving a Reims-Cessna F406 operated by Hageland Aviation Services | |
|---|---|
.jpg) A Reims-Cessna F406 machine |
|
| Accident summary | |
| Accident type | Controlled flight into water |
| place |
Chukchi Sea , 50 kilometers southwest of Barrow Airport , Alaska , United States
|
| date | August 17, 2003 |
| Fatalities | 2 |
| Survivors | 0 |
| Aircraft | |
| Aircraft type |
 Reims-Cessna F406 Caravan II
|
| operator |
Hageland Aviation Services
|
| Mark |
N6591L
|
| Departure airport |
Barrow Airport , Alaska , United States
|
| Destination airport |
Wainwright Airport , Alaska , United States
|
| Passengers | 1 |
| crew | 1 |
| Lists of aviation accidents | |
The air accident a Reims-Cessna F406 of Hageland Aviation Services took place on 17 August 2003 on a cargo flight of Hageland Aviation Services in the State of Alaska , who from the airport Barrow to airport Wainwright should lead. On this flight, a Reims-Cessna F406 Caravan II had an accident after a controlled flight into the Chukchi Sea , killing both occupants of the machine.
plane
The machine was a Reims-Cessna F406 Caravan II built in France in 1990 by Reims Aviation with the serial number F406-0053 , which was registered in April 1990 with the registration number N6591 to a private owner who owned the machine from Cessna Finance Corporation had leased. On July 10, 1992, the machine returned to the lessor as a lease return. On March 30, 2000, Hageland Aviation Services took over the machine, and on May 9, 2000, it was licensed to the aircraft leasing company Gussic Ventures LLC . The twin-engine commuter aircraft was equipped with two turboprop engines of the type Pratt & Whitney Canada PT6A-112 (500 hp), each with 373 kW, which were equipped with three-bladed propellers of the type McCauley constant speed with deicing. By the time of the accident, the machine had completed a total of 7,675 operating hours.
Inmates
A pilot from Hageland Aviation Services and a passenger were on board the machine. The pilot had 7,000 hours of flight experience, 1,000 hours of which in Reims-Cessna F406 aircraft. The passenger on board was not carried commercially on the flight.
the accident
The machine took off at 12:49 p.m. under visual flight conditions from Barrow Airport for the cargo flight to Wainwright Airport . The flight time should be around 15 minutes. When the machine had still not arrived in Wainwright at 1:57 p.m., it was reported missing. Search parties were dispatched and at a distance of 50 kilometers southwest of Barrow Airport floating objects such as cardboard boxes, airplane seats and other debris were sighted. The area was searched, but the wreckage of the machine could not be found even during an underwater search. It is believed that the wreck sank to a depth of around 20 meters.
Accident investigation
One day after the accident, the responsible investigator from the National Transportation Safety Board (NTSB) checked the archived radar data of the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) on the flight involved in the accident. As a result, the plane had flown from Barrow Airport and then turned to the southwest. It rose to an altitude of 700 feet and then continued on toward Wainwright. The direct flight route from Barrow to Wainwright runs southwest over Peard Bay . As the machine was headed for Wainwright, about 50 kilometers southwest of Barrow, it suddenly dropped to 500 feet above sea level and then made a right turn. As it turned, the machine continued to sink to 400 feet at a radar-derived speed of 180 knots. The last radar return was recorded at 12:56:38 at the same radar derived ground speed at an approximate direction of 200 degrees. Then the machine disappeared from the radar.
root cause
The sudden flight maneuver from descent and turning and the accident of the machine raised questions that the investigators could not answer with certainty. A pilot who was familiar with the area in which the machine was flying testified that herds of whales migrating there were frequent. It was therefore suspected that the occupants of the machine had flown a detour to illegally misuse the flight for whale watching and that the pilot was so distracted from her task of flying the machine that she steered the Reims-Cessna into the sea .
swell
- Accident report F406, N6591L in the Aviation Safety Network
- Final report of the National Transportation Safety Board
- Operational history of the machine on planelogger.com
Coordinates: 70 ° 58 ′ 57 ″ N , 158 ° 5 ′ 0 ″ W.