Pilot, passenger die in small plane crash in Alaska

KETCHIKAN, Alaska — Authorities say a pilot and a single passenger have died after a small plane crashed Monday near Ketchikan.

Ketchikan Gateway Borough spokeswoman Deanna Thomas says in a release that the Taquan Air operated Beaver floatplane crashed in Metlakatla Harbor around 4 p.m. No one besides the two people killed were on board the aircraft.

Thomas says their names won’t be released until their families have been notified. She says the circumstances of the crash are not being released at this time.

This crash comes a week after a Taquan Air Beaver floatplane collided with another floatplane while on a sightseeing flight in Ketchikan, which is about 23 kilometres from Metlakatla Harbor, leaving six people dead. Ten others survived the collision.

This most recent crash wasn’t a sightseeing flight, but the rest of the circumstances aren’t clear, explains Bellingham aviation lawyer Jeffrey Lustick.

“We don’t know what brought the aircraft down, whether it was an engine failure or pilot error, but the NTSB is reporting that there were several witnesses that saw the aircraft collide with the water,” he explains. “So they will be conducting in-person interviews, as well as fact-finding at the crash, and they should come out very shortly with a probable cause statement.”

He adds Taquan Air has quite the history, explaining the operator has been involved in six fatal crashes since 1992. However, Lustick stresses that alone doesn’t tell the whole story.

“It’s hard to say whether that’s a lot of incidents when you consider the environment in which this airline operates. In southern Alaska, the weather frequently changes and it becomes severe at the drop of a hat.

“The safety record of an airline — it isn’t always fair to judge the current status of the airline by their past practices,” Lustick says. “These airlines are heavily regulated by the FAA.”

A Canadian woman was identified as one of the victims in the May 13 crash.

The passengers on board the two floatplanes in that collision were all from the cruise ship Royal Princess that left Vancouver on May 11 for Anchorage. In a statement, Global Affairs Canada said “Our thoughts and sympathies are with the family and loved ones of the Canadian citizen who died in Alaska.”

-With files from Hana Mae Nassar, Estefania Duran, and Amanda Wawryk