Aviation News

Man, Dog Rescued After Plane Crash

A man and his dog are safe Friday evening after the Coast Guard rescued them following a plane crash on Montague Island in Alaska. While making his approach to a grassy Montague Island landing strip located southwest of Valdez, the pilot of a Cessna 182 experienced sudden engine failure. The craft's nose wheel caught hard in the ground, and his plane flipped hard over. A Cessna 182 lies crumpled in the grass near a landing strip on Montague Island, southwest of Valdez. The Cessna crashed when the engine suffered a malfunction, the nose wheel caught and the plane flipped hard over. The craft's occupants, a pilot and his dog, escaped harm and were transported safely to Valdez.

Both the pilot and his lone companion, a search and rescue dog in-training buckled safely into the next seat, were able to evacuate the cockpit of the Cessna.  At approximately 2:20 p.m, the Coast Guard's North Pacific Search Command here received reports from both the Cessna's Electronic Position Indication Radio Beacon (EPIRB) and it's Emergency Location Transmitter (ELT). An HH-60 Jayhawk rescue helicopter from the forward-deployed support facility in Cordova was on scene twenty minutes later.

A Coast Guard air crewmember escorts the pilot of a downed Cessna and his dog toward a waiting HH-60 Jayhawk helicopter on Montague Island Friday. The Cessna crashed when the engine suffered a malfunction, the nose wheel caught hard and the plane flipped over hard just short of the island's landing strip. "The pilot and his dog were seen on the beach a short time later by a Good Samaritan in the vicinity aboard the fishing vessel Servant," said Coast Guard Lt. Larry Quedado, one of the Jayhawk's pilots. "Fortunately, the weather at the time was favorable." Both pilot and dog were transported to Valdez, with no reports of injuries. The cause of the engine malfunction is unknown.

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	Did You Know?
	Work-related aircraft crashes are the leading cause of occupational fatality in Alaska With civilian pilots having the highest fatality rate (410/100,000/year). Between 1990 and 1998, aviation accidents in Alaska caused 100 occupational pilot deaths. Most fatalities resulted from Controlled Flight Into Terrain - (CFIT) poor visibility & pilot error were big factors.