Anchorage Daily News

Fire and dense smoke that forced an emergency landing of a Southeast Alaska commuter airplane last year was caused by a crack in an engine part that allowed hot exhaust gases to escape, federal investigators have concluded.

The probable cause of the in-flight fire on June 11, 2007, on an L.A.B. Flying Service flight out of Kake was a fractured exhaust manifold and inadequate inspection of the airplane by maintenance personnel, the National Transportation Safety Board concluded.

Three people on board narrowly escaped injury or death when pilot Rich Anderson turned around the single-engine Piper PA-32-300, also known as a Piper Cherokee Six, and safely landed at Kake's municipal airport despite heavy smoke that impaired his forward vision.

The airplane was consumed by fire seconds after the harrowing landing.

The passengers were Terrance and Nita Watkins, new pastors of a Kake church. They were concluding their first visit to the community of 536 on Kupreanof Island 95 miles southwest of Juneau and were returning to Tucson, Ariz., to prepare for a move north.

On the morning of June 11, Anderson left Juneau with passengers on a scheduled flight to Kake. Passengers complained of fumes that Anderson concluded might be exhaust, the pilot told the NTSB.

At Kake, Anderson opened the engine cowling and looked inside but spotted nothing wrong. He determined that he could make the return flight.

After takeoff, Anderson turned downwind, heard a loud bang and saw white smoke start to fill the cabin.

The Watkinses said the airplane was over water when the trouble started. Smoke appeared first in the rear of the passenger cabin and moved forward, they said. So much smoke filled the cabin, they could not see Anderson 2 feet in front of them.

A man on the ground told the Watkinses he saw flames shooting out the bottom of the aiprlane.

The pilot told the NTSB that the cabin continued to fill with smoke during landing and that as the airplane rolled to a stop on the runway, there was fire visible at his feet.

According to the passengers, Anderson unlatched and kicked open the co-pilot's door, got out and pulled Terrance Watkins out. Watkins pulled his wife onto the wing as Anderson sprayed the plane with a fire extinguisher and yelled at them to run.

In his haste to depart the airplane, Anderson did not turn the fuel selector valve off, the NTSB said, or the electric fuel boost pump. A pool of fuel formed under the fuselage and wings and ignited.

The wreckage was moved to Juneau, and inspectors found the engine's right-side exhaust assembly had fractured. A 4-by-6-inch piece of the exhaust collector was missing. The edges of the hole had fractures and long tears. Hot exhaust escaping through the hole burned a hole in the heater shroud. Tubing and the battery and baggage compartment burned, as did a fuel hose, investigators concluded.

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