2013 Kenn Borek Air DHC-6 crash
de Havilland Canada DHC-6 Twin Otter 300 · Controlled flight into terrain, due to pilot error
From Amundsen–Scott South Pole Station Airport (NZSP) to Zucchelli Station, Antarctica
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
- 3 · all aircraft and ground
- Ground fatalities
- Unknown
- Occupants
- 3
- 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
- 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
- Airline
de Havilland Canada DHC-6 Twin Otter 300
- Aircraft type
- de Havilland DHC-6
- 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
- C-GKBC
- Operator
- Kenn Borek Air
- Onboard fatalities
- 3
- Route
- From Amundsen–Scott South Pole Station Airport (NZSP)To Zucchelli Station, Antarctica
Cause areas
- Personnel issues › Task performance
- Environmental issues › Conditions/weather/phenomena
- Aircraft › Aircraft systems
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 23 January, 2013, a Kenn Borek Air de Havilland Canada DHC-6 Twin Otter 300, operating a ferry flight in Antarctica from Jack F. Paulus Skiway, at the Amundsen–Scott South Pole Station, to the Zucchelli Station, crashed into the side of Mount Elizabeth. All three crew members on board were killed. An investigation into the accident found out that the pilots turned the plane too early, entering an area of adverse weather and putting the aircraft into a collision course with the mountain.
Flight
The aircraft, which was to be used for the Italian polar research programme, was scheduled to be ferried from the Amundsen–Scott South Pole Station to the Zucchelli Station. The take off went uneventfully, then the aircraft climbed to FL110 and started heading north. The plane cruised this way for a while, until it descended to FL091 and made a 32 degrees turn at 7:25 am UTC, as the beginning of the approach procedure. About 20 minutes later the aircraft climbed again, to FL125 and, at 8:01 am, the last communication with the aircraft occurred, as it was flying over the Queen Alexandra Range; the position report scheduled for 8:27 was not received.
Investigation and cause
Investigation
Since the plane was registered in Canada and owned by a canadian airline, the Transportation Safety Board of Canada started the investigation on the accident. The final report on the crash was released in 2014 and attributed the main cause of the accident to errors of the pilots, which turned left too early, leading the aircraft in an area with a higher minimum safe altitude, leading to a controlled flight into terrain. Cloudy weather in the area was also cited as a factor. Also the plane's ground proximity warning system relied on an electronic database that hadn't available data for Antarctica, making the system less effective in the area. But, given the fact that the cockpit voice recorder although recovered was unusable, the investigators couldn't determine with more precision why the pilots did the turn, and if they tried to recover the situation in some way.
Text from the Wikipedia article “2013 Kenn Borek Air DHC-6 crash” (revision 1373206535, 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: 2013 Kenn Borek Air DHC-6 crash
- Revision
- 1373206535 · 2026-09-04 · retrieved 2026-09-18
- Wikidata
- Q138535636
- 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 "2013 Kenn Borek Air DHC-6 crash" (page 82297836, revision 1373206535)
- 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
- operator is an airline according to Wikidata
- 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.