1986 Eagle Air Piper PA-23 crash
Piper PA-23-250 Aztec · Downdraft during landing
From Ísafjörður Airport (IFJ) to Reykjavík Domestic Airport (RKV)
Event
- 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
- Event fatalities
- 5 · all aircraft and ground
- Ground fatalities
- Unknown
- Occupants
- 7
- Survivors
- Unknown
- InjuriesFatal: death within 30 days. Serious: over 48 hours in hospital within a week, most broken bones, severe bleeding, nerve or organ damage, or serious burns. Minor: anything less. Glossary
- 2
- 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
Piper PA-23-250 Aztec
- Aircraft type
- Piper PA-23
- Category
- Airplane · from aircraft type
- 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
- TF-ORM
- Operator
- Unknown
- Onboard fatalities
- 5
- Route
- From Ísafjörður Airport (IFJ)To Reykjavík Domestic Airport (RKV)
Cause areas
- Environmental issues › Conditions/weather/phenomena
- Environmental issues › Operating environment
From the investigation findings the Wikipedia article reports, sorted into the NTSB's cause areas with AI assistance.
Approximate · Coordinates from the Wikipedia article; not checked against an investigation report.
From the Wikipedia article
On 5 April 1986, at 13:26, an Eagle Air Piper PA-23-250 Aztec light aircraft crashed in Ljósufjöll in Snæfellsnes, Iceland killing five of the occupants on board. The aircraft was on a charter flight from Ísafjörður to Reykjavík and carried six passengers, including a couple with an 11-month-old child, and a pilot. It was believed that the plane landed in a downdraft and crashed into the slopes of Ljósufjöll, south of Sóleyjardalur. It remains one of the deadliest aviation accidents in Iceland's history and resulted in changes to aviation regulations and procedures to increase the flow of up-to-date weather information to pilots.
The wreckage of the plane was found on the northern slopes of Ljósufjöll, at an altitude of 700 m, just before midnight the same day. Men from the Air Rescue Squad in Reykjavík were the first to arrive at the scene of the accident and there were three passengers alive in the wreckage, but one passenger died in a snowmobile on the way down the mountain.
Investigation and cause
Final Report
An investigation by the Air Accident Committee and the Civil Aviation Administration concluded that the plane likely landed in a downdraft resulting in it crashing into the slopes of Ljósufjöll. It also concluded that a large part of the cause was due to the pilots lack of access to current weather information in the area.
Text from the Wikipedia article “1986 Eagle Air Piper PA-23 crash” (revision 1336109188, retrieved 2026-09-18) by its authors, under CC BY-SA 4.0. Extracted as plain text: references, tables, images and some sections are left out. Read the article
Sources
Wikipedia article: 1986 Eagle Air Piper PA-23 crash
- Revision
- 1336109188 · 2026-02-02 · retrieved 2026-09-18
- Wikidata
- Q65336409
- Licence
- Text CC BY-SA 4.0, by the article's authors; Wikidata CC0; town positions GeoNames (CC BY 4.0)
Where each value comes from
- Record
- Wikipedia article "1986 Eagle Air Piper PA-23 crash" (page 67995714, revision 1336109188)
- Date
- Wikipedia infobox: date
- Place and country
- Wikipedia infobox: site
- Map position
- Wikipedia article coordinates
- Aircraft, operator and route
- Wikipedia infobox: aircraft type, registration, operator, origin and destination; route airports from the linked airport articles' Wikidata codes (OurAirports)
- Operation
- Reviewed correction (2026-09-26): A light Piper Aztec on a passenger charter flight: a small charter operation. The article: "The aircraft was on a charter flight from Ísafjörður to Reykjavík and carried six passengers"
- Fatalities
- Wikipedia infobox: aircraft fatalities
- Ground fatalities
- not stated in the Wikipedia infobox
- Summary
- Wikipedia infobox: summary
Source notes (1)
- Wikipedia · Facts from the Wikipedia article's infobox and coordinates, not checked against an investigation report. Independent review pending.