Survivor Of Weekend Crash In Alaska Says Door Opened On
Takeoff
Investigators with the National
Transportation Safety Board are taking a close look at a baggage
compartment door on the Piper PA-31 Navajo Chieftain that crashed
shortly after takeoff in Alaska this weekend, killing six people
onboard and injuring four.
One of the surviving passengers told officials the plane's nose
compartment door opened shortly before the accident. A similar
problem contributed to two other Navajo crashed in Alaska, NTSB
investigator Clint Johnson told the Anchorage Daily News.
"There have been some incidents and accidents that did result
from the door coming open," he said. "We don't know yet if there
are similarities." Johnson cautioned against jumping to
conclusions, saying a number of possible factors are being looked
into.
As ANN reported, the
nine-passenger piston twin (file photo of type, below) went down
Saturday afternoon near Kodiak. The Servant Air plane has been
chartered by a group heading to Homer, to celebrate the Russian
Orthodox Christmas on Monday.
The plane's fuselage has been recovered, and was to be inspected
Tuesday by personnel with NTSB and an investigator from Piper.
According to online NTSB statistics cited by the Daily News, at
least two Navajo accidents in Alaska involved nose compartment
doors coming open. In an April 1990 incident, the door popped loose
on takeoff from Deadhorse... apparently leading to a domino effect,
as the door struck an engine cowling and then the horizontal
stabilizer.
That plane was able to make a safe emergency landing.
Investigators determined the latching spring on the door was
missing, and the latch been illegally modified to keep the door
secured.
Another incident in May 1996 also involved the nose door on the
Navajo. That aircraft, departing Point Hope, had the compartment
door fly open as the nose lifted on takeoff. "Baggage and boxes
exited the nose baggage compartment and fell through the left
engine's propeller," the NTSB's Probable Cause report states.
The pilot, unable to make it back to Point Hope, force-landed on
the frozen sea.
"Just prior to touching down, the airplane started a slow,
uncontrolled roll to the left," the report says. Of the six people
onboard that aircraft, two persons were seriously injured, while
two suffered minor injuries. Investigators determined the pilot
failed to properly insure the door was closed and locked.
The rugged Navajo is considered one of the workhorses of the
Alaskan general aviation fleet, and is a popular choice for charter
operators nationwide. Servant Air spokesman Ted Panamarioff notes
his company owned the plane since 2004, and never had a problem
with it... adding he feels something else contributed to the
accident.
"You've got all kinds of Monday morning quarterbacks, but
there's nobody that could ever convince me [the nose door coming
open] could be true in and of itself," he said. "The potential for
a plane to take off with the door open -- it's not going to happen.
[The pilot] would have seen it; it was right in front of his
face."