What happened
On the night of 11 September 2003, a Wasaya Airways Cessna 208B Caravan, registered C-FKAB, departed Pickle Lake for Summer Beaver, Ontario. The aircraft was operating a passenger charter flight carrying seven passengers and one pilot. The flight proceeded under night visual flight conditions at an altitude of 3500 feet.
As the aircraft approached Summer Beaver, it joined the airport traffic circuit on the downwind leg for Runway 17. While the pilot had activated the aerodrome lighting via radio, the aircraft failed to land. After the runway lights extinguished and the flight failed to arrive, dispatchers in Pickle Lake initiated a radio search. The aircraft was subsequently declared missing. Search and rescue teams located the wreckage in a wooded area approximately three nautical miles northwest of the aerodrome. A post-crash fire had heavily damaged the site, and all eight people on board were fatally injured.
The investigation
Investigators examined the wreckage and the pilot's history to determine the cause of the loss of control. The engine was found to be producing significant power at the time of impact, and no structural failures of the primary flight controls or airframe were identified. The investigation also looked into the possibility of spatial disorientation, noting that the pilot was transitioning from instrument-based flying to external visual references during the approach.
While the pilot had significant experience, the investigation noted that the aircraft lacked on-board flight recorders, which limited the ability to reconstruct the final moments of the flight. There was also an examination of the flight command indicator, as recurring defects in such instruments had been documented in the operator's fleet.