De Havilland DHC-6 Twin Otter

On March 9, 1996, a De Havilland DHC-6-200, N245GW, registered to Air Associates Inc., leased to Carson Services Inc., operating as a 14 CFR part 91 aerial survey flight, crashed at an undetermined time. Visual meteorological conditions prevailed at the departure airport, and no flight plan was filed. The airplane is missing and is presumed destroyed. The American pilot-in-command, American survey operator, and Peruvian Air Force observer are missing, and are presumed to be fatally injured. The flight originated from Bagua, Peru, at about 0617 mountain daylight time. Personnel from the Director General of Civil Aviation stated, the airplane departed from Bagua, Peru, conducting an aerial geological survey near the disputed boarder with Ecuador, in the Cenepa River area over dense Amazon jungle. The airplane did not return to Bagua, and there are no known recorded radio communications with N245GW. Search and rescue operations have been uneventful.

The approach to Cobán Airport was initiated in poor weather conditions with limited visibility due to fog. Too low, the aircraft struck trees and crashed in a wooded area located 7,2 km short of runway. Both pilots were killed. They were completing a positioning flight from Guatemala City.

On final approach to Addis Ababa-Bole Airport, the twin engine aircraft collided with a white backed vulture of 5,4 kg. The windshield was broken and both pilots were seriously injured. Nevertheless, they elected to make an emergency landing when the aircraft crashed 300 metres short of runway. All 20 occupants were rescued, among them nine were injured.

During the takeoff roll from runway 13, the twin engine aircraft went out of control, veered off runway and crashed in a banana plantation. One of the pilot was killed while few other occupants were injured, some seriously. The aircraft was written off.

Shortly after takeoff from Alotau Airport, while in initial climb, the aircraft caught fire and suffered an explosion. It entered an uncontrolled descent and crashed in shallow water about 2 km offshore. The aircraft was totally destroyed by impact forces and all 15 occupants were killed.

On approach to Lagos-Murtala Muhammed Airport, the crew encountered poor weather conditions with heavy rain falls and strong winds. The copilot was in command and the airplane was too high on approach so the captain took over controls and steeped the approach. Nevertheless, the aircraft was still too high over runway 19L threshold when it encountered severe downdraft. It nosed down and struck the runway surface nose gear first. It bounced, veered off runway to the left, rolled to the apron and eventually collided with a parked Fokker F27 Friendship 200MP of the Nigerian Air Force registered NAF908. Both aircraft were destroyed and one of the pilot on board the Twin Otter was killed, all eight other occupants were injured.

The aircraft departed overweight for a 17-hour ferry flight. Early in the flight the crew experienced some fuel problems and decided to continue when they resolved the problem. The crew indicated the en route winds were close to forecast. The ferry fuel system is a simple 5- tank gravity fuel feed into the fore and aft main tanks. About 6 hours from destination, they realized the ferry tanks were not flowing into the main tanks as planned. They began manually transferring fuel from the rear ferry tank to the forward ferry tank, and shut down the right engine to reduce fuel consumption. This did not stop the negative fuel flow from the main tanks. At the time of ditching, the crew estimated the fuel remaining in the ferry tanks was about 170 gallons, most of which was in the 3 aft ferry tanks. An aero engineer calculated that the aircraft was at least 10 inches behind the maximum aft cg at the time of ditching, and suggested that the ferry fuel system was not managed to maintain the cg within the allowable limits, a task made more difficult with the rear fuselage cargo.

During the takeoff roll on runway 20 at Kathmandu-Tribhuvan Airport, the aircraft failed to get airborne, overran, went through a fence and came to rest in a field. A passenger and a pilot were killed while all other occupants were rescued.

En route from Bima to Ruteng, the crew encountered poor weather conditions. Control was lost and the aircraft crashed in the Molo Strait off Rinca Island. All 14 occupants were killed.

The crew was engaged in a local training flight at Bili Airfield. During the takeoff roll on a grassy airstrip, the crew lost control of the airplane that veered off runway, lost its undercarriage and came to rest. Both pilots escaped uninjured and the aircraft was damaged beyond repair.