Aloha IslandAir Flight 1712
de Havilland DHC-6-300 · Controlled flight into terrain
From Hana Airport (OGG) to Daniel K. Inouye International Airport (MKK)
Event
- NTSB case
- DCA90MA005
- 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
- Event fatalities
- 20 · all aircraft and ground
- Ground fatalities
- 0
- Occupants
- 20
- Survivors
- 0
- 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
- 0 serious · 0 minor (NTSB)
- 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
- Instrument Meteorological Cond
de Havilland DHC-6-300
- Flight
- WP1712
- Aircraft type
- de Havilland DHC-6
- 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
- N707PV
- Operator
- Aloha IslandAir
- Onboard fatalities
- Unknown
- Route
- From Hana Airport (OGG), MAUI, HITo Daniel K. Inouye International Airport (MKK), MOLOKAI, HI
- 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
- En route · cruise
- 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 encounter with weather
- Also codedOther events the NTSB coded in the sequence, such as a wire strike after a loss of power. Flight Findings uses them for its kinds of event. Glossary
- Visual flight rules (VFR) flight into instrument meteorological conditions (IMC)
- 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 › VFR flight into imc, continued
Approximate · Coordinates from the Wikipedia article; not checked against an investigation report.
From the Wikipedia article
Aloha IslandAir Flight 1712 was a scheduled domestic passenger flight that took place on October 28, 1989. The flight originated in Hana Airport, Maui, Hawaiʻi and stopped over in Kahului Airport, Maui. It was scheduled to continue to Molokaʻi Airport, Molokaʻi and then to Honolulu International Airport; however, it crashed while enroute from Kahului to Molokaʻi. The leg in which the aircraft crashed was expected to take 25 minutes, on visual flight rules under provisions of 14 CFR Part 135. The aircraft struck terrain at 600 feet, and at a heading of 260° near Hālawa Valley, Hawaii. Both crew members and all 18 passengers died in the accident. The National Transportation Safety Board (NTSB) determined the cause of the accident was by pilot error.
Accident
Earlier on the day of the accident, the same crew flew six uneventful inter-island flights on the same aircraft. Flight 1712 operated from Hana Airport, to Kahului Airport, and was scheduled to continue to Molokaʻi Airport, and to terminate at Honolulu International Airport. The aircraft arrived at Kahului from Hana at 18:15 local time. The sun had set 22 minutes earlier, at 17:53 local time. The flight departed Kahului Airport for Molokaʻi Airport at 18:25 local time while flying under the visual flight rules. Twelve minutes later, at approximately 18:37 local time, while the aircraft maintained an altitude of about 600 feet with 150 knots, the aircraft impacted mountainous terrain killing everyone onboard. After disappearing from radar, the flight was officially declared missing at around 19:30 local time. The wreck was found the next morning at 06:25, within the mountains near Hālawa Valley at an elevation of about 600 ft.
Investigation and cause
Cause
On September 25, 1990, the National Transportation Safety Board released the final report of this accident. They determined that the probable cause of the accident was the decision of Captain Pollard to continue flying under the visual flight rules despite flying into instrument meteorological conditions at night, which obscured rising mountainous terrain which lead to an eventual impact with the mountains. It was also found out that there were orographic clouds northeast of Molokai and that the information received by Captain Pollard about the weather forecast failed to include the possibility of low cloud conditions in the flight route. The flight would have been under the instrument flight rules (IFR) or deviated from the flight route, had Captain Pollard found out about the possibility of orographic clouds. The board also stated that the accident was influenced by Aloha IslandAir management's inadequate supervision of staff, training, and operations. Additionally, there was a lack of sufficient oversight from the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) regarding Aloha IslandAir during a time of significant operational growth and expansion.
Text from the Wikipedia article “Aloha IslandAir Flight 1712” (revision 1370522518, 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
NTSB narrative
DE HAVILLAND DHC-6, N707PV (ALOHA ISLANDAIR FLT 1712), COLLIDED WITH MOUNTAINOUS/HILLY TERRAIN NEAR HALAWA BAY, HI, WHILE EN ROUTE ON A SCHEDULED PASSENGER FLT AT NIGHT FROM MAUI TO MOLOKAI, HI. IMPACT OCCURRED AT AN ELEVATION OF ABOUT 500 FT, SHORTLY AFTER THE ACFT HAD DESCENDED OVER WATER, THEN CROSSED THE SHORELINE. THERE WAS EVIDENCE THAT THE CAPTAIN HAD MADE A NAVIGATIONAL ERROR & MISTAKENLY BELIEVED THAT HE WAS CIRCUMNAVIGATING THE NORTHERN PORTION OF MOKOKAI ISLAND. THE ACFT CRASHED WHILE ON A HEADING THAT WAS PARALLEL WITH THE ISLAND'S NORTHERN SHORELINE. LOW CLOUDS OBSCURED THE MTN TOPS IN THE AREA OF THE ACDNT. THERE WAS ALSO EVIDENCE OF INADEQUATE SUPERVISION OF PSNL, TRAINING & OPNS BY ALOHA ISLANDAIR MANAGEMENT & INSUFFICIENT OVERSIGHT OF ALOHA ISLANDAIR BY THE FAA DURING A PERIOD OF ALOHA ISLANDAIR'S RAPID OPNL EXPANSION.
Probable cause
THE AIRPLANE'S CONTROLLED FLIGHT INTO TERRAIN AS A RESULT OF THE DECISION OF THE CAPTAIN TO CONTINUE FLIGHT UNDER VISUAL FLIGHT RULES AT NIGHT INTO INSTRUMENT METEOROLOGICAL CONDITIONS (IMC), WHICH OBSCURED RISING MOUNTAINOUS TERRAIN. CONTRIBUTING TO THE ACCIDENT WAS: THE INADEQUATE SUPERVISION OF PERSONNEL, TRAINING, AND OPERATIONS BY ALOHA ISLANDAIR MANAGEMENT AND INSUFFICIENT OVERSIGHT OF ALOHA ISLANDAIR BY THE FEDERAL AVIATION ADMINISTRATION PARTICULARILY DURING A PERIOD OF RAPID OPERATIONAL EXPANSION. (REF: NTSB/AAR-90/05)
Verbatim NTSB analysis and probable cause from the NTSB dataset
Sources
Wikipedia article: Aloha IslandAir Flight 1712
- Article
- Aloha IslandAir Flight 1712
- Revision
- 1370522518 · 2026-08-21 · retrieved 2026-09-18
- Wikidata
- Q131425516
- Licence
- Text CC BY-SA 4.0, by the article's authors; Wikidata CC0; town positions GeoNames (CC BY 4.0)
NTSB record DCA90MA005
- Event ID
- 20001213X29576
- Case number
- DCA90MA005
- Dataset
- historical-pre2008
- Source SHA-256
- 89e2df6d848e7ab3b42e7d7c7a03ff403303057a26ca04c95b3ea67201c3ce74
Where each value comes from
- Record
- Wikipedia article "Aloha IslandAir Flight 1712" (page 78389923, revision 1370522518); merged with NTSB case DCA90MA005 (events / aircraft)
- Date
- NTSB record DCA90MA005: NTSB API eventDate, eventTimeUtc and eventTimeUtcOffsetHours (local date)
- Place and country
- Wikipedia infobox: site; country from NTSB record DCA90MA005
- Map position
- Wikipedia: Wikipedia article coordinates
- Aircraft, operator and route
- NTSB record DCA90MA005: aircraft; gaps from Wikipedia infobox: aircraft type, registration, operator, origin and destination; route airports from the linked airport articles' Wikidata codes (OurAirports)
- Operation
- NTSB record DCA90MA005: operated under Part 135: Air Taxi & Commuter
- Fatalities
- NTSB record DCA90MA005: NTSB API totalFatal
- Ground fatalities
- NTSB record DCA90MA005: NTSB API ongroundFatal
- Summary
- Wikipedia infobox: summary
Source notes (3)
- One occurrence in two sources, merged: the Wikipedia article "Aloha IslandAir Flight 1712" and NTSB case DCA90MA005, matched by the same aircraft registration and date. For this US event the NTSB's values are used where the two differ; each value names its source.
- Filled from the NTSB case API where the bulk record had no value: local date, investigation status. Values present in the bulk record are kept.
- The date is the local date; the NTSB stores the UTC date 1989-10-29.