The NTSB issued five recommendations to the FAA and reiterated eight previously issued recommendations seeking terrain-avoidance training for Part 135 fixed-wing pilots. The latest recommendations, issued this week, stem from the Safety Board’s investigation into the Oct. 2, 2016 crash of a Cessna 208 in which the two pilots and a passenger died when the single-engine turboprop hit a mountain near Togiak, Alaska. The aircraft was operated by Hageland Aviation under Part 135 in daylight VMC.
Based on its investigation of the accident, the NTSB again has called for fixed-wing commuter and air-taxi pilots to receive the same controlled-flight-into-terrain (CFIT)-avoidance training as their rotary-wing counterparts. Currently, only Part 135 helicopter operators are required to train their pilots using an FAA-approved CFIT-avoidance training program.
While Hageland offered CFIT training based on guidance from the non-profit Medallion Foundation, the Safety Board found the training was “outdated and did not address specific CFIT risks Hageland pilots face while flying under visual flight rules near Alaska’s mountainous terrain.” The Medallion Foundation was formed by the Alaska Air Carriers Association in 2001 to “improve pilot safety awareness and reduce air carrier insurance rates.”
The investigation also found that while Hageland aircraft were equipped with a terrain avoidance warning system (TAWS), “pilots routinely turned off the aural and visual alerts while flying at altitudes below the TAWS alerting threshold to avoid receiving nuisance warnings, preventing the system from providing the intended protections.”
As the result of its investigations into previous fatal accidents involving Hageland-operated aircraft, in 2014 the NTSB issued several recommendations for the FAA to audit aviation operations and training of Hageland pilots. “Although these recommendations were closed after the FAA reported acceptable action, this investigation found gaps in Hageland’s CRM training and the FAA’s oversight of that training.”
Between April 1997 and October 2016, 23 people were killed in six crashes involving Hageland-operated airplanes—five Cessna 208s and one Cessna F406 twin turboprop—according to Safety Board records.
