Alaska Airlines Flight 60

Alaska Airlines Flight 60 was an Alaska Airlines flight involving a Boeing 727-81 at Ketchikan International Airport in Ketchikan, Alaska, United States, which crashed during a failed go-around on April 5, 1976. One passenger was killed in the accident, with the other 49 occupants suffering injuries (32 serious and 17 minor).

Accident

Having originated in Anchorage, Alaska, Alaska Airlines Flight 60 took off from Juneau International Airport in Juneau, Alaska, at 7.38 am on April 5, 1976, on a scheduled flight to Seattle, Washington, with a final stopover at Ketchikan International Airport, Ketchikan, Alaska, carrying 7 crew and 43 passengers.

At 8.05 am, Anchorage air traffic control cleared Flight 60 for an approach to runway 11 at Ketchikan. At 8.11 am, Flight 60 started its descent from 10000 ft towards runway 11 for an ILS approach under low cloud ceilings and low visibility conditions due to light snow and fog. When the flight was approx. 17 mi from the runway and at a height of 4000 ft, the pilots acquired visual contact with the ground and water, resulting in the captain's decision to abandon an ILS approach in favour of a visual approach. At an altitude of 1000 ft and a distance of about 2 mi, visual contact was made with the approach lights of runway 11.

At 8.19 am, the flight touched down about 1,500 feet beyond the runway threshold at a speed of 145 kn alongside a tailwind of 3 kn. Upon landing, the captain reversed the engines and deployed the ground spoilers alongside the wheel brakes. However, the braking actions were poor due to the runway being wet at the time of landing. The captain thereby ordered a go-around and retracted the ground spoilers before setting the flaps to 25°, however the thrust reverser mechanism failed to fully disengage, meaning that the plane couldn't obtain full takeoff speed. Further attempts by the crew to disengage the reversers were equally unsuccessful, so the captain abandoned the go-around and deployed the ground spoilers again in another attempt to slow the aircraft down. Upon realising that the aircraft wasn't going to come to a halt before the end of the runway was reached, the captain turned the plane to the right and raised the nose. Shortly thereafter, the aircraft overran the runway and passed over a gully and a service road before striking the airport's antenna array support and crashing in a ravine some 700 ft beyond the end of runway 11.

Following the crash, flight 60's fuselage was broken up in three pieces just before and beyond the wings, with the wing-section catching fire soon after the crash. Rescue personnel quickly arrived on the scene and almost all passengers and crew managed to evacuate the aircraft before it caught on fire. Firefighters were able to keep the fire at bay long enough for the pilots to be rescued from the cockpit about half an hour after the crash. All three pilots were seriously injured in the crash with captain Burke receiving multiple fractures to his legs and ribs, co-pilot Bishop suffering skull, rib, leg and spinal fractures and second officer Leach receiving multiple spinal fractures. Amongst the remaining crew, two were seriously injured while the remaining two received minor injuries. In the case of the passengers, 27 suffered from serious injuries and the remaining 15 received minor injuries, while 85-year-old Ruth Foster of Nyssa, Oregon was the only person to lose her life in the crash.