Report: Weather was deteriorating before Alaska plane crash
ANCHORAGE, Alaska — A pilot flying in rapidly deteriorating weather in Alaska confused snow on a mountain with a body of water before crashing a floatplane with 10 passengers onto the rocky mountainside, a preliminary report released Wednesday says.
All 11 people on board the flight survived the July 10 crash of a Taquan Air charter flight on Prince of Wales Island near the southern tip of the Alaska Panhandle. Six people suffered serious injuries.
The pilot told an investigator that visibility decreased rapidly from about 3 to 5 miles (5 to 8 kilometres) to nothing while the plane was cruising at 1,100 feet (335 metres), according to the preliminary report by the National Transportation Safety Board.
The pilot of the de Havilland Otter started a climbing right turn, hoping to reverse course so he could keep flying under visual flight rules.