Ketchikan: NTSB Releases Preliminary Report of Sightseeing Plane Crash By MARY KAUFFMAN - The National Transportation Safety Board on Monday released its Preliminary Report of the sightseeing plane that crashed near Ketchikan on June 25, taking with it nine souls.

NTSB investigators Brice Banning and Clint Crookshanks on scene examining the wreckage of a sightseeing plane that crashed in Alaska on June 25, 2015.
Date of Photo June 30, 2015 - Courtesy NTSB

Those who died in the Misty Fjord's crash were identified as the commercial pilot and eight passengers. Fatally injured were Rowland Hal Cheney, 71, and Mary Doucette, 59, both of Lodi, CA; Glenda Cambiaso, 31, and Hugo Cambiaso, 65, both of North Potomac, MD; June Kranenburg, 73, and Leonard Kranenburg, 63, both of Medford, OR; Margie Apodaca, 63, and Raymond Apodaca, 70, both of Sparks, NV; Pilot Bryan Krill, 64 of Hope, ID.

According to the NTSB's preliminary report, at about 12:15 PM Alaska daylight time, the single-engine, turbine-powered, float-equipped de Havilland DHC-3 (Otter) airplane, N270PA, sustained substantial damage when it impacted mountainous tree-covered terrain, about 24 miles northeast of Ketchikan, Alaska.

The National Transportation Safety Board sent a go-team from its Alaska Regional office to investigate the sightseeing plane that crashed near Ketchikan. Leading the team as investigator-in-charge is NTSB investigator Brice Banning.

The downed airplane was being operated as an on-demand visual flight rules (VFR) sightseeing flight when the accident occurred said the NTSB. The airplane was owned by Pantechnicon Aviation, of Minden, Nevada, and operated by Promech Air, Inc., of Ketchikan.

The NTSB wrote in the preliminary report that marginal visual meteorological conditions were reported in the area at the time of the accident. The flight departed a floating dock located in Rudyerd Bay about 44 miles northeast of Ketchikan about 12:00 PM for a tour through Misty Fjords National Monument Wilderness. A company VFR flight plan was in effect. At the time of the accident, the flight was returning to the operator's base at the Ketchikan Harbor Seaplane Base, Ketchikan.

The flight was a sightseeing flight for passengers of a cruise ship of the Holland America Line that was docked in Ketchikan. The tour, named Cruise/Fly, consisted of two groups of passengers. One group departed Ketchikan onboard a marine vessel and the other group departed via airplane, with a predetermined rendezvous at the floating dock in Rudyerd Bay. Once at the floating dock, the two groups would switch transportation modes for the return trip to Ketchikan, according to the preliminary report.

Shortly after the crash, Holland America Line suspended sales of the flightseeing tour operated by Promech out of Ketchikan but still continues to offer other flightseeing excursions with other operators.

The NTSB's report said the operator reported that the accident airplane departed Rudyerd Bay as the third of four float-equipped airplanes on air tour flights over the Misty Fjords National Monument Wilderness. The airplanes departed about 5 minutes apart, and the standard route of flight was southwest, over an area of remote inland fjords, coastal waterways, and mountainous tree-covered terrain.

When this airplane failed to return to Ketchikan, the operator initiated a search for the missing airplane and heard an emergency locator transmitter (ELT) signal along the accident pilot's anticipated route of flight. The downed aircraft was operated by Ketchikan-based Promech Air a local charter, tour and flightseeing business. Promech Air is the largest air taxi in southern Southeast Alaska. - More...
Wednesday PM - July 08, 2015

Southeast Alaska: Alaska Haida Representatives Visit Haida Gwaii for a Community Exchange - Representatives from Alaska’s Haida communities traveled to British Columbia, Haida Gwaii recently to collaborate on indigenous natural resource stewardship and strengthen international relations.

The magnificent coastal temperate forest
Photograph courtesy Sustainable Southeast Partnership

Carrie Sykes of the Organized Village of Kasaan and Anthony Christiansen of the Hydaburg Cooperative Association participated in May's community exchange program as part of the Emerald Edge Indigenous Stewardship Initiative. The intent of the program is to bring together people and projects from the coasts of Southeast Alaska, British Columbia, and Washington to support the long-term health of the world’s largest coastal temperate forest.

This work was supported locally with the Sustainable Southeast Partnership, a growing network of organizations working together to meet the challenge of sustainable community development in Southeast Alaska. A collective goal of these complementary programs is to support increased Indigenous leadership and local capacity-building for natural resource management in communities across the shared rainforest.

While in Haida Gwaii, Sykes and Christianson participated in the Coastal Stewardship Network Annual Gathering. This annual event brings together stewardship representatives from the First Nations to share information and strategize about important issues related to governing traditional areas. This year, the conference was opened to additional nations including guests from northern Vancouver Island, the Northwest Territories and southern Alaska.

Through participation in the Coastal Stewardship Network Annual Gathering, exchange participants said it became apparent that the Alaskan Haida and Canadian Haida have much to learn from one another in areas, such as cultural tourism, resources management, co-management, and protection of culture.

According to the participants, developing this partnership presents opportunities for collaboration and sharing of information and research processes that could greatly improve local management of traditional resources. The Alaska Haida said they were grateful to participate in this unique opportunity to strengthen international collaborations, build unity and strategize about Indigenous stewardship across the entire Haida nation.

“It was very exciting to learn about what the First Nations are doing in British Columbia to assert their self-governance and sovereign authority. Although the management regimes are quite different between the two countries, there are similar concerns such as impacts from development, competing uses for the resources, challenges facing the eulachon and clams, and potential impacts from sea otter and invasive species,” Carrie Sykes says.

The transboundary relationship with First Nations in British Columbia and Alaska Native Tribes means strength through unity on issues that are important to both nation’s coastal communities. - More...
Wednesday PM - July 08, 2015