Pilot, company culture blamed for 2015 fatal Alaska crash
ANCHORAGE, Alaska — Pilot error, an air company’s culture and its lack of a formal safety program were behind a fatal crash that killed nine people two years ago on sightseeing flight in Alaska, the National Transportation Safety Board determined Tuesday.
A pilot and eight passengers died June 25, 2015, when a de Havilland DHC-3 Otter operated by Promech Air Inc. crashed into mountainous terrain about 24 miles from Ketchikan, a city near the south end of Alaska’s Panhandle.
The seaplane was returning from Misty Fjords National Monument, named for the low clouds that often cling to sheer cliffs rising from the fjords. The monument is a wilderness area of lakes, snowcapped peaks and glacier valleys. The eight passengers were on a side excursion from the Holland America Line cruise ship Westerdam.
Promech officials after the crash said pilot Bryan Krill, 64, of Hope, Idaho, had 4,300 hours of flight experience, including about 1,700 hours piloting single-engine seaplanes. However, the NTSB said the pilot had less than two months experience flying air tours in southeast Alaska and had difficulty “calibrating his own risk tolerance” for flight tours in marginal weather.