Anchorage Daily News

The pilot of a commercial airplane that clipped a tractor-trailer and crashed during a landing in Unalaska this week appears to have properly signaled the aircraft's approach and triggered a light-warning system, but a mechanical gate that has been inoperable for years allowed the truck to pass into the landing zone, according to city and federal officials.

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Eight passengers and the pilot of the Peninsula Airways Grumman Goose suffered relatively minor injuries in the accident at the state-operated airport.

The aircraft was flying in from Akutan about 4:30 p.m. Wednesday when it came down on the truck as the vehicle passed through the flight path on Ballyhoo Road, a widely used thoroughfare at the end of the runway, National Transportation Safety Board investigator Clint Johnson said.

"A Grumman Goose has a pretty big nose on it, so, depending on the configuration, (the truck) could have been hidden from view," Johnson said. "It did some major damage before it hit the runway."

A set of landing gear was torn off during impact, and the tail rudder was torn as well, he said. After striking the truck, the airplane tipped hard into the runway, he said.

The truck driver did not report any injuries. The plane's passengers, who were not named, sustained minor scratches and bruises. One woman suffered a broken bone in her hand, Unalaska public safety director Jamie Sunderland said.

The passengers and pilot were treated and released from the Unalaska clinic, where they were also offered trauma counseling, clinic director Sonia Handforth-Kome said.

PenAir is paying the medical tab, said Scott Bloomquist, the company's vice president of sales and service. The airplane's pilot, whom Bloomquist wouldn't name, reported he activated the warning system, which should have triggered the lights and the gate, he said. The pilot was experienced at flying the Goose, he said.

"All indications are that all procedures were followed," Bloomquist said.

The aircraft is valued at about $500,000, and damage to it was still being assessed, he said. Another Goose was on its way to fill in on the Akutan route, which requires such an amphibious aircraft for access, Bloomquist said.

Sunderland said he has seen a number of close calls over the years at the end of the runway. The lights work, but aren't "highly visible," he said. The city has asked the state Department of Transportation, which operates the airport, to fix the broken gate a number of times, he said.

"It's something I've asked of DOT before, and I imagine it probably will be fixed now," he said. "It's too bad this had to happen."

The gate has been out of service for some time -- the exact year it broke wasn't immediately available -- but the warning lights still work and, until Wednesday, there hadn't been an accident involving the gate throughout its 20-year history, transportation spokesman Roger Wetherell said.

"It hadn't been fixed initially because of parts, but at this time we have no intention of fixing it because we plan to relocate it to a safer location," he said. Wetherell said he didn't know when the gate was scheduled to be relocated or where it will be placed.

The NTSB was planning to interview the pilot, truck driver and state officials to determine what exactly happened and why, said Johnson, who is likely to fly out to the scene sometime next week.

Unalaska public safety officials are considering whether to file charges against the truck driver, but plan to confer with state and federal officials first, Sunderland said.

Johnson said the tractor-trailer belonged to Horizon Lines, a Charlotte, N.C.-based freight-shipping company with a facility in Dutch Harbor. The company did not return phone messages Thursday.

Find James Halpin online at adn.com/contact/jhalpin or call him at 257-4589.

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