Akureyri – Keflavik

On August 9, 2015 at 02:45 PM, Akureyri – Keflavik experienced a crash involving De Havilland DHC-2 Beaver, operated by Private American, with the event recorded near Barkárdal Northeastern Region (Norðurland eystra).

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

2 people were known to be on board, 1 fatalities were recorded, 1 survivors were identified or estimated. This corresponds to an estimated fatality rate of 50.0%.

Crew on board: 2, crew fatalities: 1, passengers on board: 0, passenger fatalities: 0, other fatalities: 0.

The listed crash cause is human factor. At 14:01 on August 9th, 2015, a pilot along with a friend, a contracted ferry flight pilot, planned to fly airplane N610LC, which is of the type De Havilland DHC-2 Beaver, under Visual Flight Rules (VFR) from Akureyri Airport to Keflavik Airport in Iceland. The purpose of the flight was to ferry the airplane from Akureyri to Minneapolis/St. Paul in the United States, where the airplane was to be sold. The airplane was initially flown in Eyjafjörður in a northernly direction from Akureyri, over Þelamörk and then towards and into the valley of Öxnadalur. The cloud ceiling was low and it was not possible to fly VFR flight over the heath/ridge of Öxnadalsheiði. The airplane was turned around in the head of the valley of Öxnadalur and flown towards the ridge of Staðartunguháls, where it was then flown towards the heath/ridge of Hörgárdalsheiði at the head of the valley of Hörgárdalur. In the valley of Hörgárdalur it became apparent that the cloud base was blocking off the heath/ridge of Hörgárdalsheiði, so the airplane was turned around again. The pilots then decided to fly around the peninsula of Tröllaskagi per their original backup plan, but when they reached the ridge of Staðartunguháls again the pilots noticed what looked like a break in the cloud cover over the head of the valley of Barkárdalur. A spontaneous decision was made by the pilots to fly into the valley of Barkárdalur. The valley of Barkárdalur is a long narrow valley with 3000 – 4500 feet high mountain ranges extending on either side. At the head of the valley of Barkárdalur there is a mountain passage at an elevation of approximately 3900 ft. About 45 minutes after takeoff the airplane crashed in the head of the valley of Barkárdalur at an elevation of 2260 feet. The pilot was severely injured and the ferry flight pilot was fatally injured in a post crash fire.

Aircraft reference details include registration N610LC, MSN 1446, year of manufacture 1960.

Geospatial coordinates for this crash are approximately 65.6551°, -18.6090°.