The United States National Transportation Safety Board (NTSB) has issued an investigative update into the fatal PenAir runway excursion accident in October 2019, which left one person dead and several others injured.
The accident occurred on October 17, 2019, when a Saab 2000 (registration number N686PA) overshot the runway at the Thomas Madsen Airport (PADU), Alaska (U.S.) during a second landing attempt. Passing through the airport perimeter fence and crossing a road, the airplane finally came to a stop on shoreline rocks.
There were 42 people onboard, including three crew members, NTSB outlined in the investigative update on November 17, 2019. One passenger sustained injuries that proved fatal, while “several” others suffered injuries ranging from serious to minor. The aircraft was damaged substantially.
On the day of the incident, the flight crew conducted a go-around during the first approach to the runway, as they were not stabilized, according to pilots as cited in the report. After the second approach went wrong, the crew tried to steer the plane to the right at the end of the runway to avoid going into the water.
The pilot flying was the captain, who has approximately 20,000 total flight hours (14,000 hours were in the DH-8 and 101 hours were in the Saab 2000), while the first officer has 1,446 total flight hours (147 in the Saab 2000).
The NTSB continues the investigation.
PenAir (Peninsula Airways) is a U.S.-based regional airline headquartered in Alaska.