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An Alaska crash story #3
Hageland Aviation dba ERA Alaska FAR Part 135 commuter/air taxi
November 29, 2013
4 fatalities; 6 serious injuries
PIC total time 25,000 hrs; 1800 hrs make/model 20,000+ hrs AK time
Cessna 208B N12373
St Marys
Investigation closed. (NTSB pic) /1
Hageland Aviation dba ERA Alaska FAR Part 135 commuter/air taxi
November 29, 2013
4 fatalities; 6 serious injuries
PIC total time 25,000 hrs; 1800 hrs make/model 20,000+ hrs AK time
Cessna 208B N12373
St Marys
Investigation closed. (NTSB pic) /1
ERA Alaska’s name was later changed to Ravn Air. That company (which ultimately included 4 certificates) filed for bankruptcy earlier this year. Hageland Aviation was its Part 135 arm (known most recently as Ravn Connect). /2 https://www.adn.com/alaska-news/2020/04/05/ravnair-group-stops-all-flights-and-lays-off-staff-due-to-covid-19/
You may know ERA Alaska (& specifically Hageland Aviation) from the “reality” tv show, “Flying Alaska Wild”. FYI: A lot of this show was not true. (Starting with the fact that Jim Tweto was the company’s minority owner.)
Now, back to the crash. /3 https://go.discovery.com/tv-shows/flying-wild-alaska
Now, back to the crash. /3 https://go.discovery.com/tv-shows/flying-wild-alaska
Flight 1453 was scheduled to fly Bethel—Mountain Village—St Marys—BET. It departed BET at 5:41PM filing a VFR flight plan. According to a passenger, they encountered major fog about 30 minutes into the flight. The pilot decided to divert to St Marys. /4
At 6:19PM the pilot requested Special VFR clearance to St Marys. At 6:16PM the airport wx was visibility 3 miles, overcast 300 feet. Twenty minutes later, viz at 2.5 miles, 300 overcast. The area forecast included light snow showers & moderate icing between 3,000-9,000 feet. /5
The airport’s pilot-ctrld lights were not activated when the aircraft overflew the field at about 300-400 ft. It impacted a ridge at about the 425 ft level, one mile SE of the airport. The pilot & 3 pax were killed; 6 others seriously injured. /6 https://komonews.com/news/local/troopers-4-dead-in-w-alaska-plane-crash-11-21-2015
Passenger Melanie Coffee phoned for help & made her way from the wreck until she was sighted by rescuers.
It was too late however for her baby, 5 month old Wyatt, who was sitting on her lap and killed in the crash. /7
https://www.cnn.com/2013/12/01/us/alaska-plane-crash-hero-survivor/index.html
It was too late however for her baby, 5 month old Wyatt, who was sitting on her lap and killed in the crash. /7
https://www.cnn.com/2013/12/01/us/alaska-plane-crash-hero-survivor/index.html
Wyatt was not even on the passenger manifest, one of several issues the NTSB found with the company’s operational control during the investigation. /8
The Hageland Flight Coordinator who dispatched the flight had no idea that the pilot filed VFR and not IFR; he never spoke to the pilot about the weather, in fact he didn’t discuss the flight with him at all. /9
The Flight Coordinator who created the manifest for flight 1453 also did not speak to the pilot. Apparently, the pilot spoke to no one while filing VFR and walking out the door to fly into IMC with a manifest that did not list every person on his plane. /10
The takeaway from the crash of Hageland flight 1453 is that no one was paying attention to much of anything before this flight departed. /11
The FAA had tried to shut Hageland Aviation down before the crash. This statement is from the company’s most recent POI (Principal Operations Investigator) during his interview with the NTSB. He had a lot problems with Hageland. /12
FYI - Prior to the St Marys accident, Hageland crashed in Jan 2011, Nov 2011, Dec 2012, May 2013 and Nov 22, 2013. There was also a crash landing in March 2013 which did not meet NTSB incident/accident standards but resulted in significant prop, engine & nose gear damage. /13
After the March event, the FAA sent a letter to Hageland stating that “...the air carrier is incapable or unwilling to perform services with the highest possible degree of safety.” They moved to remove the company’s Director of Operations from the Ops Specs. /14
But nothing happened. The DO remained & Hageland then crashed in Newtok (May) and Deadhorse (Nov 22). Then St Marys happened. The DO was removed after that accident but he can not be blamed for all the problems with this company. /15
In his interview after St Marys, the FAA Frontline Manager found a very old & familiar reason to blame for the problems at Hageland: bush syndrome. /16
The probable cause for the crash of Hageland flight 1453 was found to be the pilot’s decision to fly VFR into IMC at night & the flight coordinator’s dispatch w/o discussing risks which resulted in the pilot’s loss of situational control. There were also contributing factors. /17
Melanie Coffee died 11 months after the plane crash, and the death of her son, in an ATV accident. She was 26 years old. /18
https://www.adn.com/rural-alaska/article/st-marys-plane-crash-survivor-found-dead-after-atv-collision/2014/10/09/
https://www.adn.com/rural-alaska/article/st-marys-plane-crash-survivor-found-dead-after-atv-collision/2014/10/09/
Hageland crashed 7 more times after St Marys; most recently in Jan 2020, right before Ravn Air Group filed for bankruptcy. The list of Ravn’s accidents since the company (ERA Alaska) was formed is long. You can read about in a piece I wrote in 2019. Here’s their crash list. /19
And here is the link to my article from last year on Hageland (& Ravn’s) accident history. /fin https://www.adn.com/opinions/2019/10/31/the-sobering-history-of-crashes-by-alaskas-biggest-rural-air-carrier/
You can read the Probable Cause report for flight 1453 here. The interviews are found in the NTSB docket for the accident. https://app.ntsb.gov/pdfgenerator/ReportGeneratorFile.ashx?EventID=20131130X23954&AKey=1&RType=HTML&IType=MA
