Survivor Of Weekend Crash In Alaska Says Door Opened On Takeoff

Investigators with the National Transportation Safety Board are taking a close look at a baggage compartment door on the Piper PA-31 Navajo Chieftain that crashed shortly after takeoff in Alaska this weekend, killing six people onboard and injuring four.

One of the surviving passengers told officials the plane's nose compartment door opened shortly before the accident. A similar problem contributed to two other Navajo crashed in Alaska, NTSB investigator Clint Johnson told the Anchorage Daily News.

"There have been some incidents and accidents that did result from the door coming open," he said. "We don't know yet if there are similarities." Johnson cautioned against jumping to conclusions, saying a number of possible factors are being looked into.

As ANN reported, the nine-passenger piston twin (file photo of type, below) went down Saturday afternoon near Kodiak. The Servant Air plane has been chartered by a group heading to Homer, to celebrate the Russian Orthodox Christmas on Monday.

The plane's fuselage has been recovered, and was to be inspected Tuesday by personnel with NTSB and an investigator from Piper.

According to online NTSB statistics cited by the Daily News, at least two Navajo accidents in Alaska involved nose compartment doors coming open. In an April 1990 incident, the door popped loose on takeoff from Deadhorse... apparently leading to a domino effect, as the door struck an engine cowling and then the horizontal stabilizer.

That plane was able to make a safe emergency landing. Investigators determined the latching spring on the door was missing, and the latch been illegally modified to keep the door secured.

Another incident in May 1996 also involved the nose door on the Navajo. That aircraft, departing Point Hope, had the compartment door fly open as the nose lifted on takeoff. "Baggage and boxes exited the nose baggage compartment and fell through the left engine's propeller," the NTSB's Probable Cause report states.

The pilot, unable to make it back to Point Hope, force-landed on the frozen sea.

"Just prior to touching down, the airplane started a slow, uncontrolled roll to the left," the report says. Of the six people onboard that aircraft, two persons were seriously injured, while two suffered minor injuries. Investigators determined the pilot failed to properly insure the door was closed and locked.

The rugged Navajo is considered one of the workhorses of the Alaskan general aviation fleet, and is a popular choice for charter operators nationwide. Servant Air spokesman Ted Panamarioff notes his company owned the plane since 2004, and never had a problem with it... adding he feels something else contributed to the accident.

"You've got all kinds of Monday morning quarterbacks, but there's nobody that could ever convince me [the nose door coming open] could be true in and of itself," he said. "The potential for a plane to take off with the door open -- it's not going to happen. [The pilot] would have seen it; it was right in front of his face."

FMI: www.ntsb.gov