Kotzebue - Shungnak

On December 10, 1987 at 09:00 PM, Kotzebue - Shungnak experienced a crash involving Cessna 207 Skywagon/Stationair, operated by Bering Air, with the event recorded near Ambler Alaska.

The flight was categorized as cargo and the reported phase was flight at a mountains crash site.

1 people were known to be on board, 1 fatalities were recorded, 0 survivors were identified or estimated. This corresponds to an estimated fatality rate of 100.0%.

Crew on board: 1, crew fatalities: 1, passengers on board: 0, passenger fatalities: 0, other fatalities: 0.

The listed crash cause is human factor. The pilot of the air taxi cargo flight was operating at night in marginal VFR conditions when the aircraft struck rising terrain. The aircraft was found the next day at approximately 1000 ast, some 15 miles off the intended route. The pilot was unconscious and suffering from hypothermia and other injuries. He was taken to a hospital, but died later that day. An investigation revealed the aircraft struck the south side of Bismark mountain at approximately 2,100 feet msl while in level flight. Another pilot, who was flying in the area about 2-1/2 hours after the accident, reported that classic white-out conditions existed with moderate snow fall and ice crystals reducing forward visibility to less than 1/2 mile. The pilot (of N9979M) had been recently hired by Bering Air and had only about 23 hours of known flight time in the general area. At the time of employment, he indicated he had approximately 1,536 hours of flight time; however, only 446 hours of flight time was verified by his logbook and other sources. Minimum flight time to act as a pic in the air taxi operation was 500 hours.

Aircraft reference details include registration N9979M, MSN 207-0773, year of manufacture 1984.

Geospatial coordinates for this crash are approximately 67.0870°, -157.8547°.