An Alaska air tour operator’s safety culture — which “tacitly endorsed flying in hazardous weather” — was partly to blame for the 2015 crash of a de Havilland DHC-3 Otter into a tree-covered mountainside in clouds and mist, the U.S. National Transportation Safety Board (NTSB) says.
The June 25 crash killed the pilot and all eight passengers and destroyed the airplane.
In its final report on the accident, the NTSB said the probable causes were the pilot’s “decision to continue visual flight into an area of instrument meteorological conditions [IMC], which resulted in his geographic disorientation and controlled flight into terrain [CFIT],” as well as the operator’s “company culture, which tacitly endorsed flying in hazardous weather and failed to manage the risks associated with the competitive pressures affecting Ketchikan-area air tour operators, its lack of a formal safety program and its inadequate operational control of flight releases.”
The accident …
