What happened
On the morning of the accident, an Alaska Central Express, Inc. cargo flight, operating as Flight 51, was traveling from King Salmon toward Dillingham, Alaska. The aircraft, a cargo aircraft, was flying under instrument flight rules (IFR) and had departed Anchorage earlier that morning. As the flight approached Dillingham, the crew requested the RNAV GPS 19 instrument approach and was cleared to proceed to the Initial Approach Fix (IAF) while maintaining an altitude of at least 2,000 feet. The crew then requested to enter a holding pattern at the IAF to obtain a runway condition report from the Flight Service Station.
Shortly after receiving clearance for the holding pattern, the Anchorage Air Route Traffic Control Center lost radar contact with the aircraft. After several unsuccessful attempts to re-establish communication, air traffic controllers initiated a radio search to determine if the plane had diverted to a different destination. When the aircraft failed to arrive at its destination, an alert notice was issued.
Search operations involving the Alaska State Troopers, the U.S. Coast Guard, and the Alaska Air National Guard were launched. An Air National Guard C-130 successfully located a 406 MHz emergency locator transmitter signal in a mountainous region approximately 20 miles north of Dillingham. However, due to severe weather conditions, the wreckage could not be reached until the following morning. Upon arrival at the steep, ice-covered crash site, a rescue helicopter confirmed that both pilots had sustained fatal injuries and the aircraft was destroyed.
Findings
- The aircraft was operating in instrument meteorological conditions at the time of the impact.
- The aircraft struck rising terrain approximately 10 miles east of Aleknagik, Alaska.