Eight Killed in Alaska Part 135 Charter Crash

CAPE NEWENHAM, Alaska — Eight people were killed when a Security Aviation (SVX) Cessna 441 crashed near a remote military radar site in western Alaska on Thursday, August 20.

The Federal Aviation Administration's preliminary accident notice identifies the aircraft as N128EZ and the flight as SVX45. The agency lists two flight crew members and six passengers as fatalities and classifies the aircraft as substantially damaged.

The FAA record also identifies the flight as an on-demand commercial operation conducted under Part 135 and places it in the approach phase. Its description says only that the aircraft “crashed under unknown circumstances.”

The aircraft had departed Ted Stevens Anchorage International Airport (ANC) for Cape Newenham Long Range Radar Site Airport (PAEH). Alaskan Command said military rescue personnel reached the site and confirmed there were no survivors.

NTSB Examines Missed Approaches and Radar Data

National Transportation Safety Board (NTSB) Alaska Region Chief Clint Johnson said the pilots were navigating by instruments because they could not see the ground. The crew made a missed approach, and Anchorage Center lost contact with the aircraft after a second missed approach, according to Alaska Public Media's account of the NTSB briefing.

Johnson said the wreckage was found west of the runway in rising terrain and that a post-crash fire occurred. He also said the site's radar captured the final flight path, giving investigators another source of evidence as they reconstruct the sequence.

Weather reports near Cape Newenham changed sharply. The Associated Press reported, citing the National Weather Service, that consecutive automated observations roughly 15 minutes apart went from a low ceiling, fog and about 10 miles (16km) of visibility to less than one-quarter mile (0.40km) of visibility.

Those observations do not establish conditions at the aircraft's exact position or show that weather caused the accident. Investigators will need to align the observations with air traffic control, radar and other evidence.

The FAA's instrument approach chart for Runway 15 cautions that Cape Newenham's runway is on the slope of a mountain, with high terrain on both sides and at its southern end. It also warns that a successful go-around is improbable if initiated beyond the missed-approach point. The chart describes the operating environment; it does not determine why SVX45 crashed.

A six-member NTSB team led by Senior Air Safety Investigator Eric Gutierrez was expected to reach the site as weather permitted. The FAA and Security Aviation were expected to participate under the Board's direction. Johnson said access and wreckage recovery posed logistical challenges. The agency had not announced whether the aircraft carried recorders or whether any recording equipment had been recovered.

Flight Carried Corps Employees and Contractors

The U.S. Army Corps of Engineers chartered the aircraft for travel to the Cape Newenham radar site. Two Corps employees and four contractors were among the passengers, Johnson said. The Corps described its employees as part of a project-delivery team traveling to support a U.S. Air Force project, but authorities had not disclosed the specific work. AP reported that two of the contractors worked for Calista Brice, an Alaska-based construction, engineering and logistics group.

Alaskan Command said the Pacific Air Forces Regional Support Center manages Cape Newenham as part of a network of 21 Pacific installations. The long-range radar sites monitor aircraft operating in Alaska's airspace and along its borders, and contractors operate most of them.

The Part 135 classification places the accident within a sector that supplies much of remote Alaska's air transportation. The FAA's Alaska Aviation Safety Initiative says remote communities across the state are served primarily by Part 135 commuter and on-demand operators carrying passengers, mail and cargo and conducting medical flights.

Part 135 is the federal rule set for commuter and on-demand operations. In this case, the FAA's classification means SVX45 was a commercial passenger charter, not a scheduled airline flight.

Aircraft and Operator

The FAA aircraft registry lists N128EZ as a 1979 Cessna 441, a pressurized twin-engine turboprop. The registry is not a maintenance record, and no authority has disclosed an inspection, maintenance or mechanical issue connected with the accident.

Security Aviation is based in Anchorage and advertises Cessna 441 Conquest II aircraft for passenger and cargo charters. The company said in a statement reported by Alaska Public Media that it was heartbroken by the accident and was cooperating with investigators.

NTSB records also document a separate fatal Part 135 accident involving a Security Aviation-operated Piper PA-31-350 near Cooper Landing, Alaska, in November 2019. The pilot and two medical crew members died. The Board's final report on that air-ambulance flight found that the pilot failed to maintain clearance from terrain in gusty wind and reduced-visibility night conditions.

That earlier finding does not explain the Cape Newenham crash. It involved a different aircraft, crew, mission and location. The current investigation remains at the fact-gathering stage, with no cause announced.