Redmond - John Day

On July 14, 1988 at 11:40 AM, Redmond - John Day experienced a crash involving De Havilland DHC-6 Twin Otter, operated by Kenn Borek Air, with the event recorded near Mt Battle Creek Oregon.

The flight was categorized as positioning 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 DHC-6 Twin Otter, C-GKBM, was under contract to the U.S. Forest Service. It was to be repositioned to John Day, OR to pick up passengers. At 11:35 PDT, the pilot checked in with John Day Dispatch and transmitted his expected time of arrival would be 12:15 PDT. About 11:40 the aircraft contacted three trees with the right wing at the 5,000-foot level of Battle Creek Mountain. This impact separated the wing into three sections before the aircraft "exited" over the mountain edge. The final impact site was on this ridgeline with the aircraft coming to final rest in a steep canyon to the east. There was a high mountain further east on the flight path that also needed to be crossed before a descent to John Day, Oregon could be commenced. The pilot's medical records indicated the he had been having medical problems, some of which he did not want brought to the attention of the Medical Doctor (MD) designated by the FAA to do flight physicals. In addition, he did not tell his supervisor that he was having medical problems. It was noted that he had complaints of chronic muscular neck pains, back problems, falling asleep, allergy problems, numbness in the top of his feet, feeling tired and run down, and pain in his legs. The flight track showed a gradual descent of about 400 feet per minute. He was off course to the right for about five minutes before impacting with trees. This flight tract strongly supported a very high probability of sleep-induced unconsciousness.

Aircraft reference details include registration C-GKBM, MSN 417, year of manufacture 1974.

Geospatial coordinates for this crash are approximately 43.9531°, -123.3127°.