Hageland Aviation Services Reims-Cessna F406 accident
Reims Aviation 406 · Controlled flight into water
From Wiley Post Will Rogers Memorial Airport (BRW) to Wainwright Airport (AWI)
Event
- NTSB case
- ANC03FA096
- 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
- 2 · all aircraft and ground
- Ground fatalities
- Unknown
- Occupants
- Unknown
- 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
- Visual Meteorological Cond
Reims Aviation 406
- Aircraft type
- Reims 406
- 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
- N6591L
- Operator
- Hageland Aviation Services
- Onboard fatalities
- Unknown
- Route
- From Wiley Post Will Rogers Memorial Airport (BRW), Barrow, AKTo Wainwright Airport (AWI), Wainwright, 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
- Maneuvering
- 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 collision with terrain/water
- DamageDestroyed: beyond practical repair. Substantial: damage that affects the structure, performance or handling and normally needs major repair. Minor: less than that. Glossary
- Substantial
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.
From the Wikipedia article
The Hageland Aviation Services Reims-Cessna F406 accident occurred on 17 August 2003 on a cargo flight of Hageland Aviation Services in the US state of Alaska, which was to go from Barrow Airport to Wainwright Airport. On this flight a Reims-Cessna F406 Caravan II crashed after a controlled flight into the Chukchi Sea, killing both occupants of the aircraft.
Accident sequence
The aircraft took off from Barrow Airport at 12:49 in visual meteorological conditions for the cargo flight to Wainwright Airport. The flight was to last around 15 minutes. When the aircraft had still not arrived at Wainwright by 13:57, it was reported missing. Search teams were dispatched, and at a distance of 50 kilometres southwest of Barrow Airport objects floating in the sea such as cardboard boxes, aircraft seats and other pieces of debris were sighted. The area was searched, but the wreckage of the aircraft could not be found, even in an underwater search. It is assumed that the wreckage sank to a depth of about 20 metres.
Accident investigation
One day after the accident, the responsible investigator of the National Transportation Safety Board (NTSB) reviewed the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) archived radar data for the accident flight. This showed that the aircraft had initially departed Barrow Airport and then turned towards the southwest. It climbed to an altitude of 700 feet and then continued towards Wainwright. The direct flight route from Barrow to Wainwright leads southwest over Peard Bay. As the aircraft was flying towards Wainwright and was about 50 kilometres southwest of Barrow, it suddenly descended to 500 feet above sea level and then flew a right turn. During the turn the aircraft continued to descend to 400 feet at a radar-derived speed of 180 knots. The last radar return was recorded at 12:56:38 with the same radar-derived ground speed on an approximate heading of 200 degrees. After that the aircraft disappeared from radar.
Investigation and cause
Cause
The sudden flight manoeuvre of descent and turn and the aircraft's accident raised questions that could not be answered beyond doubt by the investigators. A pilot who was familiar with the area in which the aircraft was flying stated that migrating pods of whales were frequently to be found there. It was therefore assumed that the occupants of the aircraft had flown a detour in order to misuse the flight, in breach of the rules, for whale watching, and that the pilot was so distracted from her task of flying the aircraft that she steered the Reims-Cessna into the sea.
Translated into English with AI assistance from the German Wikipedia article “Flugunfall einer Reims-Cessna F406 der Hageland Aviation Services” (revision 238907567, retrieved 2026-09-19) by its authors, under CC BY-SA 4.0. Extracted as plain text: references, tables, images and some sections are left out; the translation may contain errors, and long articles were cut to their first 700 words. Read the article
NTSB narrative
The certificated airline transport pilot, with one non-revenue passenger, departed in the twin-engine turboprop airplane from a rural airport on a CFR Part 135, VFR cargo flight over ocean waters. The flight did not reach its destination, and was reported overdue. Search personnel searched along the airplane's anticipated route of flight, over ocean waters. Shortly after initiation of the search, airborne search personnel reported sighting floating debris, consisting of what appeared to be aircraft seats, cardboard boxes, and small portions of aircraft wreckage, about 30.5 miles southwest of the flight's departure airport, and about 10 miles from shore. The airplane is presumed to have sunk in ocean waters estimated to be between 50 and 70 feet deep. Underwater search and recovery efforts were unsuccessful, and the airplane, pilot, and passenger remain missing. A review of archived radar data disclosed that as the accident airplane approached an area about 30.5 miles southwest of the departure airport, it descended to 500 feet msl, and then entered a right turn. As the turn progressed, the airplane continued to descend to 400 feet msl, with a radar-derived ground speed of 180 knots. The last radar return was recorded with the same radar-derived groundspeed, on an approximate heading of 200 degrees. A pilot who is familiar with geographical locations in the area reported that migrating whales are commonly sighted in the area where the radar depicted a descending right turn.
Probable cause
An in-flight collision with ocean waters while maneuvering for an undetermined reason.
Verbatim NTSB analysis and probable cause from the NTSB dataset
Sources
German Wikipedia article: Flugunfall einer Reims-Cessna F406 der Hageland Aviation Services
- Translation
- Into English with AI assistance; names of linked operators and aircraft types from Wikidata. It may contain errors.
- Revision
- 238907567 · 2023-11-08 · retrieved 2026-09-19
- Wikidata
- Q93990281
- Licence
- Text CC BY-SA 4.0, by the article's authors; Wikidata CC0; town positions GeoNames (CC BY 4.0)
NTSB record ANC03FA096
- Event ID
- 20030821X01377
- Case number
- ANC03FA096
- Dataset
- historical-pre2008
- Source SHA-256
- 89e2df6d848e7ab3b42e7d7c7a03ff403303057a26ca04c95b3ea67201c3ce74
Where each value comes from
- Record
- de Wikipedia article "Flugunfall einer Reims-Cessna F406 der Hageland Aviation Services" (page 11257040, revision 238907567), translated into English with AI assistance; merged with NTSB case ANC03FA096 (events / aircraft)
- Date
- NTSB record ANC03FA096: NTSB narrative opening date, consistent with the API date and time (local date)
- Place and country
- Wikipedia infobox: site; country from NTSB record ANC03FA096
- Map position
- NTSB record ANC03FA096: NTSB API eventLatitude/eventLongitude
- Aircraft, operator and route
- NTSB record ANC03FA096: 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 ANC03FA096: operated under Part 135: Air Taxi & Commuter
- Fatalities
- NTSB record ANC03FA096: NTSB API totalFatal
- Ground fatalities
- NTSB record ANC03FA096: events.inj_f_grnd
- Summary
- Wikipedia article lead
Source notes (3)
- One occurrence in two sources, merged: the Wikipedia article "Hageland Aviation Services Reims-Cessna F406 accident" and NTSB case ANC03FA096, 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: 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.