Accident Cessna 208B Grand Caravan N803TH,

ASN Wikibase Occurrence # 319883

Date:	Monday 1 May 2017
Time:	13:50
Type:	Cessna 208B Grand Caravan
Owner/operator:	Grant Aviation
Registration:	N803TH
MSN:	208B0321
Year of manufacture:	1992
Total airframe hrs:	17990 hours
Engine model:	Pratt & Whitney Canada PT6A-114A
Fatalities:	Fatalities: 1 / Occupants: 1
Aircraft damage:	Destroyed, written off
Category:	Accident
Location:	Chignik, AK - United States of America
Phase:	En route
Nature:	Passenger - Scheduled
Departure airport:	Port Heiden Airport, AK (PTH/PAPH)
Destination airport:	Perryville Airport, AK (KPV/PAPE)
Investigating agency:	NTSB
Confidence Rating:	Accident investigation report completed and information captured

Narrative:
A Cessna 208B Grand Caravan airplane, N803TH, sustained substantial damage after impacting steep, mountainous terrain about 8 miles south of Chignik Lake Airport, Alaska. The airplane was being operated as Flight 341 by Grant Aviation as a scheduled commuter flight. The pilot, the sole occupant, sustained fatal injuries. Visual meteorological conditions prevailed at the airplane's point of departure. Flight 341 departed Port Heiden Airport, Alaska, at 13:05, destined for Perryville Airport, Perryville, Alaska.
Flight 341 originated at the King Salmon Airport, Alaska, with one passenger who disembarked at the Port Heiden Airport. The scheduled flight continued to the Perryville Airport, which was about 80 miles away, with 1,322 lbs. of mail and no passengers.
After an ELT signal of the aircraft was received, a search mission was initiated. At 17:30, the wreckage was located.
The wreckage came to rest in deep snow at about 2,993 feet on the west face of a treeless, steep mountain in the Alaska Peninsula National Wildlife Refuge of the Aleutian Range. It is located about 500 feet from the top of the mountain ridge and partially submerged in the snow on its left side with the nose section under the snow pack. The fragmented wreckage was contained in an area of about 100 feet by 40 feet, on a heading of about 030 ° magnetic, with the right wing separated and located about 40 feet forward of the main wreckage. The wings and fuselage sustained substantial damage.
At 12:39, an aviation special weather report (SPECI) from the Chignik Airport (the closest weather reporting facility) reported, in part: wind variable at 4 knots; visibility 10 statute miles, light rain; sky condition, overcast at 1,700 feet; temperature 39 ° F, dewpoint 36 ° F; altimeter, 29.51 inHg.

Probable Cause: "The pilot's continued visual flight rules flight into an area of mountainous terrain and instrument meteorological conditions, which resulted in controlled flight into terrain (CFIT). Contributing to the accident was the company's failure to provide the pilot with CFIT-avoidance recurrent simulator training as required by their CFIT avoidance program and the company's inadequate flight risk assessment processes, which did not account for the known weather hazards relevant to the accident route of flight."

Accident investigation: