Tyee Airlines de Havilland DHC-2 accident
de Havilland DHC-2 · Accident: in flight collision with terrain/water while maneuvering
From C · Ketchikan, AK to C · Craig, AK
Event
- NTSB case
- SEA83AA028
- Event typeAccident: someone killed or seriously injured, or the aircraft substantially damaged (NTSB definition). Incident: an occurrence that affected or could have affected safety, short of that. Glossary
- Accident
- InvestigationHow far the investigation had got when the record was published: preliminary, ongoing, final or completed. Unknown where the source does not say. Glossary
- Completed
- API-reported fatalities
- 8 · all aircraft and ground
- Ground fatalities
- 0
- OperationWhat kind of flying it was, grouped by the rules it flew under: airline (US Part 121), air taxi and commuter (Part 135), general aviation (Part 91 and similar), military or government. Glossary
- Charter & commuter
- WeatherVisual meteorological conditions (VMC): good enough to fly by looking outside. Instrument conditions (IMC): cloud or low visibility, flying by instruments. Glossary
- Visual Meteorological Cond
de Havilland DHC-2
- Aircraft type
- de Havilland DHC-2
- Category
- Airplane
- RegistrationThe aircraft's tail number, such as N12345 or G-ABCD. Registrations are reissued, so the same one years apart can be a different aircraft. Glossary
- N68081
- Operator
- Tyee Airlines
- Onboard fatalities
- Unknown
- Route
- From C · Ketchikan, AKTo C · Craig, AK
- Aircraft age
- Not recorded
- Flight rulesThe regulations the flight operated under: in the US, Part 91 (general aviation), Part 121 (airlines), Part 135 (air taxi and commuter) and others; for flights abroad, the NTSB's coarser commercial or non-commercial code. Glossary
- Part 135: Air Taxi & Commuter
- Phase of flightThe stage of the flight when things started to go wrong: standing, taxi, takeoff, initial climb, en route, maneuvering, approach or landing. Glossary
- Maneuvering · turn to reverse direction
- First occurrenceThe single coded event the NTSB judges best describes what happened (records from 2008 on). Older records name the first occurrence in the sequence instead. Glossary
- In flight collision with terrain/water
- DamageDestroyed: beyond practical repair. Substantial: damage that affects the structure, performance or handling and normally needs major repair. Minor: less than that. Glossary
- Destroyed
Cause areas
- Pilot in command › In-flight planning/decision, improper
Approximate · Coordinates as recorded by the NTSB; no uncertainty radius is established.
NTSB narrative
AT 1236 THE FLT DEPARTED KETCHIKAN SEAPLANE BASE WITH A SPECIAL VFR CLEARANCE & AT 1240 REPORTED CLEAR OF THE CONTROL ZONE. THE NEXT & LAST TRANSMISSION BY THE PLT WAS MADE TO THE COMPANY VIA FM RADIO AT ABOUT 1340. THIS REPORT WAS ISSUEDIN THE VICINITY OF HAPPY HARBOR (PASSING OVER KASAAN ISLAND) & WAS THE APPROXIMATE MID-POINT OF THE FLT TO CRAIG. WITNESSES REPORTED SEEING THE ACFT FLYING SW OVER TWELVEMILE ARM TOWARD HOLLIS. UPON REACHING HOLLIS THE FLT WOULD BE EXPECTED TO TURN WEST & CROSS INLAND OVER PRINCE OF WALES ISLAND UNTIL REACHING THE WEST SHORELINE & THENCE DIRECTLY TO CRAIG. THERE WAS A FOG BANK ABOUT 2 MI PRIOR TO HOLLIS IN TWELVEMILE ARM & THE ACFT WAS OBSERVED TO REVERSE COURSE AS THE WX WAS APPROACHED & PROCEED NORTH. THE ACFT WAS LOST FROM SIGHT DUE TO TREES & RAPIDLY UPSLOPING TERRAIN. AN INCREASE IN ENG SOUND WAS HEARD PRIOR TO THE CRASH. WITNESSES DESCRIBED THE CLOUDS AS ESSENTIALLY BROKEN WITH BASES AT ABOUT 1000 FT OVER THE WATER & OBSTRUCTING THE TOPS OF SOME OF THE HIGHER ISLANDS.
Verbatim NTSB analysis from the NTSB dataset
Sources
NTSB record SEA83AA028
- Event ID
- 20020917X05129
- Case number
- SEA83AA028
- Dataset
- historical-pre2008
- Source SHA-256
- 89e2df6d848e7ab3b42e7d7c7a03ff403303057a26ca04c95b3ea67201c3ce74
Source notes (4)
- Unreviewed is an editorial label, not an investigation status. API-sourced is not report-checked or human-reviewed. Explicit event totals are used without summing aircraft injury tables; onboard allocation is withheld. Unknown values remain unknown. The operation category is mapped from the NTSB-reported FAR part and has not been reviewed.
- Filled from the NTSB case API where the bulk record had no value: investigation status. Values present in the bulk record are kept.
- The date is the local date, which is the same as the UTC date the NTSB stores.
- API snapshot SHA-256: 97f4c4337b9fb1e544cb936088e4f7571d54a4e799985bf2be8fee2c4a72ee8d; retrieved 2026-09-18T14:31:36.863Z.