Two Homer-based commercial air taxis were involved in an incident at a popular bear-viewing spot near Lake Clark National Park and Preserve on the west side of Cook Inlet Tuesday, according to the National Transportation Safety Board.
“The two commercial air taxis were K-Bay and Cook Inlet Aviation and K-Bay had passengers on board,” said Williams Shaun Williams, an Air Safety Investigator with the NTSB.
Williams says Nobody was hurt but the two planes dug their noses into the sand at a beach along Chinitna Bay.
“Two commercial air taxi operators had landed on the beach to conduct bear viewing for passengers. When they were taxiing to leave one of the aircraft encountered an area of soft sand and it caused the nose wheel to buckle. The other aircraft saw this and was taxiing to an area of more solid surface above the tide line and they also hit an area of soft sand which caused the airplane to nose over,” said Williams.
Williams says the incident was reported to the NTSB around 4 p.m. Tuesday, but after an initial investigation, they handed it off to the FAA.
“We monitored it like any other accident or incident report. Once we determined that it did not fall under the jurisdiction of the NTSB, meaning the one aircraft from Cook Inlet [Aviation], there was not intent for flight, they were just moving it to solid ground. The K-Bay [Air] aircraft, the damage did not reach the determination of substantial therefore the NTSB will not be conducting the in-depth investigations that you are used to seeing. The FAA will be conducting an incident investigation,” said Williams.
An FAA spokesperson confirms that they are looking into it.
