I just read that an Otter crashed in Soldotna. Nine passengers are dead, as is the pilot. The plane was flown by Willy Radiske, owner of Rediske Air Services. The story in USA Today also mentioned the crash of another small plane off of Kodiak Island. The two people aboard that plane were able to swim ashore after the crash, but no further details were provided.

This has been a particularly bad period for aviation. Too many accidents and too many fatalities. It is depressing that no "aha" moment has appeared that would allow the flying community to make an immediate improvement in its safety record. I remain a cautious pilot, but non-flying friends are beginning to look at me as some kind of wild daredevil for flying at all.

The loss of life is terrible, as is the loss of good equipment.
Here is a link to all the other unfortunate aviation incidents/accidents.

Surprising how many helicopters are in there considering the airplane/helicopter ratio.

http://www.faa.gov/data_research/accide ... nary_data/

Willy was a damn good guy and a damn good pilot. This one just sucks! From an "audio" witness... she heard the plane taking off, heard a bang or a pop or a small explosion type noise then seconds later the impact. She looked out the door of the hangar and there was the fireball and smoke. Sounds like he lost the hot section within seconds of breaking the ground. The blades on the prop were all curled backwards so it would not appear the engine was producing power.

It is a shitty shitty thing for all the families involved.

Sorry to hear.