Alaska Air Crash

It was very sad to hear of the plane crash that took the life of former Senator Ted Stevens and others aboard the aircraft. What hit home is that we were just in Alaska and had flown a Piper Navajo from Fairbanks to Coldfoot, AK north of the Arctic Circle. The particular aircraft that went down was a De Havilland "Otter." It's one of the backbones of Alaska Aviation.

Planes are like taxis in Alaska. one in 70 Alaskans have a pilot's license. You can't drive to Alaska's Capitol city of Juneau. You have to get there by boat or plane.

We saw one neighborhood outside of Anchorage that had a plane in the backyard of every home!

It will take awhile to determine the cause of a crash, but weather could have been a factor. Both times we've been to Alaska you could always count on at least some foggy/rainy weather. Mountains and oceans make for rapidly changing weather, despite the best forecasts.

When I flew with the Civil Air Patrol in Wyoming and Texas, but especially Wyoming, we learned that mountainous areas create their own weather. According to reports the plane Stevens was aboard was flying VFR or Visual Flight Rules although it's very likely the pilot was instrument rated which is required to fly in bad weather. Maybe the cause was mechanical. We just don't know.

My flight instructor taught me early on he wasn't teaching me how to fly, but how not to crash. When you're flying over rough terrain your options for a safe landing are slim should you have problems with your aircraft. You train to do it, but mountains and heavily wooded areas make lousy landing fields.

With the CAP I also learned that a crashed aircraft looks anything like a plane. It's a crumpled pile of metal, usually hidden deep beneath huge trees and very difficult to spot. Then there's the challenge of getting rescue crews to the crash site which was the case in Alaska.

Despite this crash, there will be thousands of takeoffs and landings every day in Alaska because that's how you get from "here to there" in the 49th state. Whether in the Lower 48 or in Alaska, the most dangerous part of your trip is the trip to the airport. Given a choice between flying by plane or driving down the road, I'll take the plane any day.

While in Alaska, I took video of various planes whenever I could, so here's a video montage of an important, make that a critical part of transportation in Alaska.




Brian Olson
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