09 April 2014

Oh No, Not Again

Two pilots on training flight killed in small-plane crash near Bethel
Two pilots were killed Tuesday night when a small Cessna crashed and burned near Bethel, authorities said.

The Alaska State Troopers said Derrick Cedars, 42, of Bethel, and Greggory McGee, 46, of Anchorage, were on a training flight at the time of the crash. The plane was a Cessna 208 Caravan operated by Hageland Aviation, a spokesman for Ravn Alaska, Hageland's parent company, said in a statement.

No passengers were on board.
Cessna 208 file photo
 About 6:15 p.m. Tuesday, the plane was reported overdue in the Three Step Mountain area, Megan Peters, troopers spokeswoman, wrote in an email. Within an hour, a local pilot spotted burning wreckage near a fishing weir.

The Alaska Army Guard in Bethel sent a Black Hawk helicopter with local firefighters and Alaska State Troopers in response, Peters wrote. The responders found a "large debris field" at the crash site and willow trees charred and burned, she said.

The remains of the pilots were found in the wreckage, and next-of-kin have been notified, Peters said.
[snip] On Nov. 29, a Hageland Aviation Cessna 208 crashed near the village of St. Marys in Southwest Alaska. The NTSB is also investigating that crash, which killed four people and injured six.

This has been a rough winter for aviation deaths in Alaska.

11 comments:

JMD said...

Really sad, hope that crashing stops. Pretty soon no pilots and no planes left.

Cathy said...

Selfishly . . . I think it'd be difficult to be married to a small plane pilot. I don't know statistically what the mortality rate is . . .
Maybe it's more for semi-drivers.
But, still . . . if these planes go down . . not much chance of survival.

PioneerPreppy said...

Ya know I wonder if it isn't more the terrain up there. I know there are infinitely more small planes flying around Alaska and all but down here the small planes seem to always find a place to land pretty quick. Just thinking places to land in Alaska may be more difficult to come by.

Rev. Paul said...

Me too, JMD. Me, too.

Cathy, it probably seems that way from Outside, looking in - but we have more planes than cars, up here. And that's saying quite a bit.

Preppy, that's part of it. The rest of it is the weather. What's favorable in one spot can be impenetrable just around the next mountainside, or in the next valley.

Stephen said...

It would take an act of God for me to climb into another aircraft...I mean it. BTW, I miss the moose.

Well Seasoned Fool said...

Not knowing the facts, this is a generic remark. From my first lesson, the emphasis was to fly the airplane first, last, and always. The second, any off airport landing is probably survivable if you go in wings level, nose up. The killer is stall/spin. Fortunately, I've never had to find out personally.

Rev. Paul said...

I hear you, Stephen, but Alaskans are trapped way up here if we don't fly. Working folks can't take off an entire month just to spend half of it driving back & forth. Sad, that; I'd prefer to drive. And the moose will be back soon.

WSF, that's true - and there are a lot of crash survivors up here. but sometimes the ground arrives before the pilot's ready for it.

Old NFO said...

Truly sad. I'm hoping they didn't suffer.

Rev. Paul said...

Amen.

Anonymous said...

Don't let the gov't get wind of the numbers, or they'll ban civil aviation, too!

gfa

Rev. Paul said...

It's way too late for that, gfa. The NTSB has reps on every crash site within hours, excepting the really remote ones. Some of those never get found at all.