Harris Aircraft Services de Havilland DHC-2 accident
de Havilland DHC-2 · Accident: missing aircraft
From Sitka Rocky Gutierrez Airport (PASI) to Baranof Warm Springs Float and Seaplane Base (BNF)
Event
- NTSB case
- ANC04FAMS2
- 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
- 5 · all aircraft and ground
- Ground fatalities
- Unknown
- 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
- N712TS
- Operator
- Harris Aircraft Services
- Onboard fatalities
- Unknown
- Route
- From Sitka Rocky Gutierrez Airport (PASI), Sitka, AKTo Baranof Warm Springs Float and Seaplane Base (BNF), Baranof, 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
- Unknown
- 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
- Missing aircraft
- 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
- Reason for occurrence undetermined
Approximate · Coordinates from the NTSB case API, which marks them as estimated or does not say; no uncertainty radius is established.
NTSB narrative
The commercial certificated pilot, with four passengers, departed for a remote lodge on an on-demand air taxi flight in an amphibious float-equipped airplane. The airplane was the second of two company airplanes to depart for the lodge. The route of flight would have transited around the north end, from the west side to the east side of a large island. The first company airplane completed the flight, but the accident airplane did not arrive at the lodge, and was reported overdue. Throughout the morning, before the accident flight, the pilot received two telephonic weather briefings from the local FAA flight service station, which included an AIRMET for mountain obscuration, and two pilot reports from the first pilot. In addition, the pilot visited the FSS for another weather briefing. The weather conditions along the route of flight had reported visibilities as low as 2 miles, and ceilings as low as 200 feet due to rain and mist, and wind of 35 to 40 knots. The area of the accident flight is characterized by steep mountainous island terrain, numerous ocean channels, and an extensive shoreline, containing small coves and bays. The area frequently has low ceilings and reduced visibility due to rain, fog, and mist. The island is one of several barrier islands between the north Pacific Ocean and mainland Alaska. The western coastal portion of the island is exposed to open ocean. The eastern coastal portion of the island is adjacent to a wide strait, which separates the island from several inner islands. The area of operations for the accident airplane has no low-level radar coverage, intermittent radio communications, and limited weather reporting capability. The company's operations manual states that aircraft may not be released for a flight at any location unless there is agreement about the parameters of the flight with the pilot-in-command, and any of the following: Director of operations; chief pilot; or trained individuals granted the authority by the director of operations. The airplane has been declared missing, and is presumed to have crashed; the occupants are presumed to have received fatal injuries.
Probable cause
Reason for occurrence is undetermined. The airplane is missing.
Verbatim NTSB analysis and probable cause from the NTSB dataset
Sources
NTSB record ANC04FAMS2
- Event ID
- 20041015X01635
- Case number
- ANC04FAMS2
- 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, coordinates. 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: 382dcd5c2ead8c717b3a9e37edd8602a61169c64522ec548889403c079fc6b15; retrieved 2026-09-18T13:00:05.876Z.