The National Transportation Safety Board released its preliminary report Wednesday on last month’s plane crash in Southwest Alaska that killed all eight people on board.
The report does not give a cause for the crash. However, it highlights low visibility and foggy conditions in the area and on the runway as the plane made two attempts to land.
Eric Gutierrez, the lead investigator for the crash, said the NTSB is still gathering information about the crash, such as weather data and pilot and maintenance records.
“Right now, we are in the fact finding phase,” Gutierrez said. “It is a preliminary report, and sometimes preliminary information can be incorrect.”
The Cessna 441 Conquest crashed on Aug. 20 at a military radar site on Cape Newenham, about 450 miles west of Anchorage. The plane, chartered by the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers and operated by Anchorage-based Security Aviation, was on a second approach and flying with low visibility when it crashed in mountainous terrain west of the runway, according to the agency.
The flight was carrying personnel from multiple organizations to the long range radar site at Cape Newenham, part of a network that tracks aircraft operating in Alaska's airspace and along its borders.
Military aircraft responded on the day of the crash and confirmed that there were no survivors.
The six passengers included Army Corps employees Sabrina Hansen and Hayden Scalis; U.S. Air Force 2nd Lt. Leah Borsich; Trevor McWilliams, an employee with Yukon Fire Protection Services; and two employees of Calista Corporation subsidiary Calista: Brice Joseph “Joe” Palmer and Tom Fisher.
Security Aviation identified the two pilots as Captain Dave Furber and first officer Sergei Zelenkov.
Preliminary report highlights low visibility
The NTSB report says the pilots were in communication with the air traffic controllers in Anchorage and requested to delay their landing several times.
The report also describes foggy conditions on the ground. A technician at the radar site inspected the runway in the morning but could not conduct a second inspection before landing “because of thick fog that blanketed the runway.”
Another technician observed low visibility and fog during each of the plane’s approaches.
After the first missed approach, the flight crew told the technician they wanted to land at Platinum Airport, about 23 miles north of Cape Newenham, instead. But they decided to make a second attempt at Cape Newenham after they could not reach Platinum by radio.
By that time, the technician on the ground said that visibility at Cape Newenham had worsened to the point that he could not see the runway from a nearby weather building.
“The technician stated that, by the time the airplane had begun its second approach, none of the visibility reference points were visible,” according to the report.
The report says that, shortly after, the technician “heard the engines ‘throttle up,’ followed by a ‘backfire,’ after which the sounds ceased.” Staff at Cape Newenham found the crash site half a mile west of the approach end of the runway.
The report also includes information about landing at Cape Newenham while relying on instruments. It cautions that, because the runway is located on a slope with mountains on both sides, it would be “improbable” to recover from a missed approach beyond a certain point.
Gutierrez said that, because of the challenges for an aircraft to reach Cape Newenham safely, the wreckage is still at the crash site awaiting recovery. He said the agency hopes to release the final report within 18 months.
The crash was the deadliest in Alaska since a Bering Air crash killed all 10 people aboard in February 2025. Since the Cape Newenham crash, four people died in a plane crash in the Kenai Peninsula community of Seldovia on Aug. 26. Two people died in a Southwest Alaska plane crash near Aniak on Sept. 15.
Correction: This story has been edited to clarify that the Sept. 15 crash happened near Aniak, not in Aniak.
