A plane that crashed at a remote military site in western Alaska, killing all eight people on board, was making its second runway approach in heavy fog when it lost contact, authorities said on Friday. The Cessna’s two pilots couldn’t see the gravel airstrip and were flying solely by instruments when the plane crashed about midday Thursday, Clint Johnson, the National Transportation Safety Board’s Alaska region chief, said in a virtual presser, per the AP. Regulations required that they abort their first landing attempt due to the lack of visibility, Johnson said, and the plane crashed on its second attempt, about one-third of a mile from the runway.
The runway is surrounded by mountainous terrain on three sides, and the FAA recommends that pilots use GPS and other instruments when they land there. On board were the pilots, two employees of the US Army Corps of Engineers, and four contractors. Two of the contractors were employees of Calista Brice, a collection of companies that perform construction, engineering, logistics, and other work in remote areas. The military hasn’t said what work they were performing at the Cape Newenham Long Range Radar Site, about 450 miles west of Anchorage. NTSB investigators were traveling to the scene on Friday.
Those on board were “dedicated professionals carrying out a vital mission in a demanding environment,” US Air Force Lt. Gen. Robert Davis said in a statement on Thursday, adding, “This is a devastating loss for our military family and the communities we serve.” Johnson said search teams found the fragmented wreckage after the twin-engine Cessna 441, also known as a Cessna Conquest, lost contact. Its final flight path was captured by radar at the site, he said.
Weather conditions were changing on Thursday as heavy fog rolled through the area. An automated observation system not far from the airport reported a low cloud ceiling, fog, and visibility of about 10 miles in the minutes before the crash, but the next update about 15 minutes later showed visibility of less than one-quarter mile, per a meteorologist in charge of the National Weather Service’s Alaska sector operations center. Mike O’Donnell, who oversaw airport safety programs and accident investigations for much of his 17 years at the FAA, said it sounded as if weather conditions were bad enough that the pilots should’ve diverted and landed somewhere else.