Only Assumptions Can Be Made About What Took Down a Curtiss C-46 in Alaska

Shortly after the airplane named 'Maid of Money' took off in December 2000, snow began to fall, and winds picked up to 50 knots.

Peter Garrison

Thursday, March 28, 2024 at 08:51 AM ET

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Actually, it would be difficult to define the main problem for pilots flying in Alaska. There are so many of them. [iStock]

Key Takeaways:

Alaska experiences a general aviation accident rate twice the national average until 2016, a problem attributed to limited weather information and a "style of flying and acceptance of risk" fostered by backcountry operations.
The article details a 2000 C-46 crash where experienced pilots, flying a familiar route in rapidly deteriorating weather, descended into a mountain ridge, likely due to a lack of positional awareness and being in-cloud.
A key takeaway from the accident is that pilots flying routine routes can develop a dangerous reliance on assumptions and a "sixth sense," potentially neglecting real-time information and accurate navigation, especially when environmental conditions worsen.

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According to a recent report from Alaska Public Media, that state’s rate of fatal general aviation accidents was about twice that of the rest of the country until 2016 when, for unspecified reasons, it began to decline. It still remains higher than elsewhere. The gist of the article—which was motivated by the death of Eugene Peltola, husband of U.S. representative Mary Peltola, in a Piper Super Cub—was that the main problem for Alaskan pilots was lack of weather information, since the density of automated weather reporting stations in the state is half that of other parts of the country.

Actually, it would be difficult to define the main problem for pilots flying in Alaska. There are so many of them. And there is an additional problem that is created by the sheer existence of all the other problems: a certain style of flying and acceptance of risk arising from the combination of urgency and improvisation that backcountry operations entail.