Home Forums Hunting & Shooting Alaska Plane crash in Kodiak

We had a Cherokee 6 crash after leaving Old Harbor in what is locally called" The High pass". 2 px were killed, pilot and another px were injured. The 4th px had to be extricated and was listed at critical.
Sad day here on Kodiak. The plane belonged to Vertigo, the pilot was a very seasoned good pilot. Aircraft is total loss. Not a good way to start into the holiday.

Sorry.

I hate hearing about these! Good people doing what they love and living a full life being taken too soon.

God be with the family and friends affected by this sad loss.

Sad news prayers sent

Amazing anyone survived.

RIP and prayers for survivors and all those directly affected.

Sad day here on Kodiak. The plane belonged to Vertigo, the pilot was a very seasoned good pilot. Aircraft is total loss. Not a good way to start into the holiday.

Who owns Vertigo air? Who was flying?

Jay Wattum owns it.
Pilot name has not been released yet

Back on the middle 80's wife and I were on a Kodiak deer hunt. The charter was a huge boat (Quest Charters) where we slept, ate, and lived for a week. One of the fellow hunters was a bush pilot and we talked a good bit as I was very interested in flying.

Pilot told me when you get your license to fly in Alaska you are given a long piece of string. Every time you go on a flight cut a piece of string off. Eventually all pilots run out of string. It seems just as true today as it did 40 years ago.

My condolences to all the people involved in this tragedy.

Condolences and prayers.

Sorry for your loss, Dennis.

The string analogy is obviously flawed as b quite a few finish their careers. Last year we celebrated the retirement of Steve Harvey, 50 years of Bush flying in AK, much of it on Kodiak in a widgeon.
One of the guys who was in the wreck was a local appliance guy. Sad to lose good folks.

I'm sorry to hear about this. Prayers to those affected.

Flying in Alaska, like all Alaskan outdoor activities, requires attention to detail and often puts you into reduced safety margin situations.

I got my private pilot ticket at Merrill Field, in Anchorage, 39.5 years ago. Then hired Ray Tremblay to teach me tailwheel fling and share his experience in bush flying.

Alaska is beautiful, but it can bite you.

Pilot in fatal Kodiak Island plane crash said he made forced landing, according to preliminary report
Megan Pacer, Anchorage Daily News, Alaska
Thu, July 13, 2023 at 2:06 PM AKDT·2 min read
Jul. 13—The pilot in a fatal air-taxi crash on Kodiak Island this month told investigators he made a forced landing after the plane carrying four passengers seemed to have been caught in a downdraft, according to a preliminary report released Thursday.

Two passengers were killed when the Piper PA-32-300 operated by Vertigo Air Taxi crashed in mountainous terrain July 2 after takeoff from the town of Old Harbor on the southeast coast of Kodiak Island. The pilot and two other passengers were seriously injured, one of them critically.

The bodies of the two passengers who died — Kodiak resident Rodney Murdock, 73, and Texas resident Byron Chitwood, 91 — were recovered a day after the crash, according to Alaska State Troopers.

The pilot told National Transportation Safety Board investigators that shortly after he took off from Old Harbor, he flew north into an area of rising terrain covered in trees and alder, according to the preliminary NTSB report.

The pilot said he determined he needed to make a 180-degree turn to gain altitude so the plane could clear a mountain pass, according to the preliminary report. The pilot maneuvered the plane to the right side of the valley they were flying in to make a climbing left turn, the report said.

The pilot told investigators that when the plane reached the right side of the valley, it wouldn't climb, and he believed the aircraft was caught in a downdraft, according to the report.

"Fearing that the airplane had insufficient altitude to make the left turn and away from the rising terrain," the pilot picked an area of mountainous, alder-covered terrain to make a forced landing, the report said.

As it crashed, the plane struck two mountainous spurs — or undulations in the topography — before it came to rest on a third, investigators wrote. The crash site is about 3 miles north of Old Harbor.

According to the report, the aircraft was operating as an on-demand charter flight that afternoon, taking the four passengers and their luggage back to Kodiak from Old Harbor. They were on their way back from Kodiak Sportsman's Lodge.

The NTSB report didn't specify whether the pilot had previous experience flying into or out of Old Harbor.

An investigator with the NTSB, along with troopers, reached the wreckage site the morning after the crash, and an initial examination of the scene revealed no "pre-accident anomalies," according to the preliminary report.



A more detailed examination of the airframe and engine are still pending. Clint Johnson, chief of the NTSB's Alaska office, said Thursday that the plane wreckage was recently recovered and flown out by helicopter. The engine has been shipped to Anchorage to be examined, he said.

As a standard part of the investigation, Johnson said, the NTSB will look into factors such as weight and balance, and the airplane's load that day. More comprehensive interviews will also take place soon, he said.

If they took off into the wind as normal and then tried to make a 180, they would be then be turning downwind. In doing so, they would the losing the headwind component and lift. In addition, in a turn with 30 degrees angle of bank you only have 87% of wing’s lift. Increase to 45 degrees angle of bank and you’re only getting 70% of the lift the wing is capable of producing.

If you’re flying an aircraft without a lot of excess thrust/power available, you can’t power out of it even if you recognize the problem. Always a sad deal.