Passengers 9 Survivors 0 Operator Rediske Air Survivor 0 | Crew 1 Date 7 July 2013 Total fatalities 10 (all) Location Soldotna Airport | |
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Summary Impacted airport runway after take-off; under investigation Site Soldotna Airport, Soldotna, Alaska, U.S. Aircraft type de Havilland Canada DHC-3 Otter Location Soldotna Airport, Soldotna, Alaska, United States Similar Nepal Airlines Flight 555, Associated Aviation Flight 361, 2013 Loreto Helicópte, 2013 Goma Compagn, 2013 Siberia Polar Airli | ||
On 7 July 2013, a single-engine de Havilland Canada DHC-3 Otter, operated by air charter company Rediske Air, crashed and burst into flames at Soldotna Airport in Soldotna, Alaska. The sole crewmember and all nine passengers on board were killed.
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Crash
According to the United States' Federal Aviation Administration and local law enforcement officials, the aircraft "struck the runway and burned" shortly after take-off, before 11:20 a.m. AKDT (19:20 UTC), killing all ten people on board. It was flying to an unspecified fishing lodge. The National Transportation Safety Board was called in to investigate the cause of the crash.
In addition to the pilot, the crash killed nine people from two families visiting Alaska from Greenville, South Carolina. The victims' ages ranged from 11 to 74.
The weather was reported to be cloudy at the time of the accident.
Investigation
There were no eyewitnesses to the accident. The incident aircraft was not equipped with a flight data recorder. Investigators found that a passenger had recorded the takeoff with the camera of his mobile phone. Due to the absence of any other recorded data, the NTSB decided to reconstruct the trajectory and speed of the airplane based on the recorded video. The analysis was challenging, since the camera was hand-held. By applying image analysis and 3D computer simulation, the NTSB was able to first estimate the time-varying orientation of the camera and then the location and orientation of the airplane. The NTSB report found: "The analysis revealed that shortly after takeoff, flight speed started decreasing rapidly and angle of attack started increasing rapidly. Approximately 11 seconds after takeoff, flight speed and angle of attack reached levels corresponding to stall."