Summary Accident Passengers 0 Survivors 0 Number of deaths 2 Survivor 0 Crew count 2 | Site North Shore Mountains Fatalities 2 Date 13 April 2015 Operator Carson Air Ltd Passenger count 0 | |
 | ||
Aircraft type Swearingen SA226-TC Metro II Similar 2015 Moncks Corner mi, Avia Traffic Company Flight 768, Turkish Airlines Flight 1878, 2015 Pakistan Army Mil, 2015 Eglin Air Force Base heli | ||
Carson Air Flight 66, under callsign Eclipse Flight 66, was a Swearingen SA226-TC Metro II, registration C-GSKC, on a domestic cargo flight operated by Carson Air from Vancouver to Prince George, both in British Columbia, Canada. On 13 April 2015, the aircraft crashed into a mountain en route to Prince George Airport, killing both crew members operating the flight.
Contents
Aircraft
The aircraft, a Swearingen SA226-TC Metro II, serial number TC-325 registered C-GSKC, was manufactured in 1977 and Carson Air was its only operator. The aircraft was powered by 2x Garrett TPE331-10UA-511G and was not equipped with a cockpit voice recorder or a flight data recorder.
Crew
The crew on this flight consisted of only the cockpit crew, 34-year-old pilot Robert Brandt and 32-year-old co-pilot Kevin Wang.
Flight
The flight had taken off from Vancouver International Airport at approximately 7:02 Pacific Time Zone. The aircraft abruptly descended from 2,400 meters to 900 meters in less than a minute. Air Traffic Controllers soon lost radar contact with the aircraft, en route to Prince George, at roughly 7:08. The aircraft crashed on a hillside near Crown Mountain.
Search and rescue
The aircraft crashed at a hillside area near Crown Mountain, a part of the North Shore Mountains. The rescue operation to reach the downed flight was carried out by North Shore Rescue. Two helicopters and two aircraft participated in the search for the wreckage of the aircraft. Poor weather conditions slowed the search for the aircraft. It was later discovered that the emergency locater transmitter was activated but did not send out a signal.
Examination and investigation
The accident is being investigated by the Transportation Safety Board of Canada (TSB), who determined the cause of the accident was an in-flight breakup. An autopsy performed on the two pilots by the British Columbia Coroner Service revealed that pilot Brandt had a blood alcohol level of 0.24 percent, higher than 0.08 percent, the legal limit for a driver.