CESSNA 208, DILLINGHAM, ALASKA, OCT. 10, 2001–At about 9:26 a.m. Alaska daylight time, Peninsula Airways (dba Pen- Air) Flight 350, Cessna Caravan N9530F, crashed shortly after takeoff from Dillingham Airport (DLG). The pilot and nine passengers were killed and the airplane was destroyed. One passenger was airlifted to a hospital in Anchorage but died the next day. The impact site was located about 0.7 nm northeast of the departure end of Runway 01 at DLG. There was no post-crash fire. Flight 350 was destined for King Salmon, Alaska (AKN), on a scheduled Part 135 flight. VMC prevailed at the time of the accident.
The Safety Board determined the probable cause of the accident to be an in-flight loss of control resulting from upper-surface ice contamination, which the PIC failed to detect during his preflight inspection of the airplane. Contributing to the accident was the lack of a preflight inspection requirement for Caravan pilots to examine at close range the upper surface of the wing for ice contamination when ground icing conditions exist.
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