The National Transportation Safety Board (NTSB) on Tuesday blamed “pilot unresponsiveness” for last August’s crash of a de Havilland Turbo Otter amphibious floatplane in remote Alaska that killed pilot Terry Smith and four passengers including former Alaska Sen. Ted Stevens.
The Board said a flight surgeon’s decision to reinstate Smith’s first-class medical certificate without a more thorough medical examination after he suffered a stroke in 2006 was “inappropriate.” While investigators said they could not determine whether Smith had a stroke in the final minutes of the flight, they did not rule out that he may have been experiencing lingering affects from the condition that led to a temporary suspension of his medical after the stroke.
