A Pilatus PC-12 ferry flight to Hilo suffered an engine failure near ETNIC intersection and ditched into the Pacific this afternoon. 2 souls on board. It was hard to listen to. I’m wondering if anyone has access to information to see if they survived the ditching and were rescued? Praying for their safe return. It’s going to be a long night in that raft as they were near the halfway point.

Was in the area at the time of the accident this afternoon. They did survive the ditching it appears. A number of hours after the ditching several airplanes were reporting an elt return. So the airplane floated a long time or it was the raft. Called atc later on to ask how they were doing and it appeared a ship was already in the area and they had gotten in the raft. Sounds like they should be safe thank God. Definitely was very hard to listen to.

It would have been nice to have more information in the OP.

The flight was from Santa Maria, CA to Hilo, HA.

Is this like a regular shuttle, cargo or similar, going over the pacific? Single engine? They seem to have done more flights than this on that route before?

Bforbes wrote:

Was in the area at the time of the accident this afternoon. They did survive the ditching it appears. A number of hours after the ditching several airplanes were reporting an elt return. So the airplane floated a long time or it was the raft. Called atc later on to ask how they were doing and it appeared a ship was already in the area and they had gotten in the raft. Sounds like they should be safe thank God. Definitely was very hard to listen to.

Thanks very much for the update. Great to hear some encouraging news. We didn’t have SATCOM and lost the ability to hear them as they descended through 20,000 or so, which rendered us less able to offer help. That Alaska pilot who was handling the coordination did a fantastic job.

I’m glad they are safe but I’m confused. Since when is a PC-12 capable of flying safely over 2400 miles from California to Hawaii? That sounds beyond the aircrafts safe flying range. Has Pilatus expanded capability recently? I’m not up to date but that distance seems unrealistic.

75driver wrote:

I’m glad they are safe but I’m confused. Since when is a PC-12 capable of flying safely over 2000NM from California to Hawaii? That sounds beyond the aircrafts safe flying range. Has Pilatus expanded capability recently? I’m not up to date but that distance seems unrealistic.

It was a ferry flight, a delivery flight. Special temporary fuel tanks, not an ordinary flight in any way.

RobertS975 wrote:

75driver wrote:

I’m glad they are safe but I’m confused. Since when is a PC-12 capable of flying safely over 2000NM from California to Hawaii? That sounds beyond the aircrafts safe flying range. Has Pilatus expanded capability recently? I’m not up to date but that distance seems unrealistic.

It was a ferry flight, a delivery flight. Special temporary fuel tanks, not an ordinary flight in any way.

Thank you. Didn’t read the original post close enough. DUH! I see that now. Cheers...

Looked like the same plane had made that trip before earlier in the week

I’d say they were some “lucky” pilots.

https://www.khon2.com/local-news/coast- ... f-of-oahu/

This shows how important it is to have the right equipment for these flights. I'm glad they're safe. Out of interest, isn't it possible to fly across the Pacific following the Aleutian Islands all the way from Alaska to Japan?

jtamu97 wrote:

I’d say they were some “lucky” pilots.

https://www.khon2.com/local-news/coast- ... f-of-oahu/

AWESOME NEWS. Thanks so much for sharing this info. Hopefully I’ll be able to sleep now. They did all the right things with their MAYDAY call which allowed their position to be identified precisely. As I mentioned earlier, an Alaska crew did a fantastic job coordinating with ATC.

I was the Alaska pilot on the radio relaying all the information. We were communicating with ATC multiple ways. When they ditched there was a ship near by, but they were unable to get on board due to rough seas. The coast guard was waiting for daylight to rescue them. It should be soon. Hardest moment of my carear listening to the silence after they ditched and flying the next 3 hours having no idea what happened.

mm320cap wrote:

jtamu97 wrote:

I’d say they were some “lucky” pilots.

https://www.khon2.com/local-news/coast- ... f-of-oahu/

AWESOME NEWS. Thanks so much for sharing this info. Hopefully I’ll be able to sleep now. They did all the right things with their MAYDAY call which allowed their position to be identified precisely. As I mentioned earlier, an Alaska crew did a fantastic job coordinating with ATC.

Thank you very much. Neither of us slept much last night. It will be great to hear when they are actually on land.

peterinlisbon wrote:

This shows how important it is to have the right equipment for these flights. I'm glad they're safe. Out of interest, isn't it possible to fly across the Pacific following the Aleutian Islands all the way from Alaska to Japan?

Sort of, depending on ultimate destination, going to Oceania, it would a long way round. Thru, Nome, then several Russian airports works for the Pacific Rim destinations-Magadan, Petropavlovsk, Khavorosk.

Wow crazy and glad there was a
Good outcome.

Can you elaborate more on what perhaps the AS crew communicated to ATC? Just curious and interested to hear how other flight crews assist in these situationa.

Excellent news they are all safe!

Glad they made it.

Now that's a story for the grandkids...

CD1013 wrote:

I was the Alaska pilot on the radio relaying all the information. We were communicating with ATC multiple ways. When they ditched there was a ship near by, but they were unable to get on board due to rough seas. The coast guard was waiting for daylight to rescue them. It should be soon. Hardest moment of my carear listening to the silence after they ditched and flying the next 3 hours having no idea what happened.

About two years ago were westbound over New Foundland when we heard a call on 121,5 from N762SU that they have smoke in the cockpit, are diverting to Goose Bay and are shutting down all avionics. Nothing after that.. suddenly your coffee at FL350 doesn't taste as good as before, thinking what someone is going thru. About an hour later someone asked Moncton if they have any info about that aircraft. They landed safely.

N1011 wrote:

Excellent news they are all safe!

We were able to give atc via CPDLC and then a direct SATCOM call their exact location, altitude, airspeed and heading. We did this repeatedly and then we plotted it to verify where they were and where they were heading. We gave ATC the color of the airplane, the fact that they had a life raft and its color. We gave reports up to 1,800 feet. When we didn't hear anything else and we were heading Eastbound, we passed along their last known position to planes heading westbound. Everyone in the vicinity was looking for them and then passing along their ELT signal.

*They have not been rescued yet...Coast Guard is on the way though.

CD1013 wrote:

I was the Alaska pilot on the radio relaying all the information. We were communicating with ATC multiple ways. When they ditched there was a ship near by, but they were unable to get on board due to rough seas. The coast guard was waiting for daylight to rescue them. It should be soon. Hardest moment of my carear listening to the silence after they ditched and flying the next 3 hours having no idea what happened.

Nice work. Professionalism at its finest. I have no doubt that my colleagues on the other end of the radio appreciate your help.

All the best to the rescue team to get everyone out safe. Pacific distances are enormous.

Noshow wrote:

All the best to the rescue team to get everyone out safe. Pacific distances are enormous.

It shows how traveling along established routes adds some level of safety. There is a good deal of all kinds of marine traffic between Hawaii and CONUS. (When I say "between", I mean out on the water between, not connecting just the two, and so include traffic to/from destinations all over.) If you had to send a ship just from Hawaii or California, it would be a long, long wait.

That's why air travel over some other parts of the world with substantially-less marine (and air) traffic changes the safety dynamic a lot, in the rare situation like this.

It also looks like this aircraft had some maintenance issues and diversions prior to the ill-fated flight, including a turnback on the first attempt to Hilo on Monday. https://flightaware.com/live/flight/N400PW/history

CD1013 wrote:

I was the Alaska pilot on the radio relaying all the information. We were communicating with ATC multiple ways. When they ditched there was a ship near by, but they were unable to get on board due to rough seas. The coast guard was waiting for daylight to rescue them. It should be soon. Hardest moment of my carear listening to the silence after they ditched and flying the next 3 hours having no idea what happened.

You did a fantastic job. I had a new Captain and a trainee LCA with me and we all commented on what a great job you did. Your calm and professional voice was no doubt a great source of comfort to those two. Very well done indeed.

CD1013 wrote:

I was the Alaska pilot on the radio relaying all the information. We were communicating with ATC multiple ways. When they ditched there was a ship near by, but they were unable to get on board due to rough seas. The coast guard was waiting for daylight to rescue them. It should be soon. Hardest moment of my carear listening to the silence after they ditched and flying the next 3 hours having no idea what happened.

Well done sir, well done !

And welcome to a.net !

peterinlisbon wrote:

This shows how important it is to have the right equipment for these flights. I'm glad they're safe. Out of interest, isn't it possible to fly across the Pacific following the Aleutian Islands all the way from Alaska to Japan?

The weather and winds would be much more benign on the route they were taking. The PT 6 engine has been around for decades and failures are quite rare. Someone else mentioned transiting Russia on the Northern Route...Visions of 'red tape' flashed through my brain.

Thenoflyzone wrote:

CD1013 wrote:

I was the Alaska pilot on the radio relaying all the information. We were communicating with ATC multiple ways. When they ditched there was a ship near by, but they were unable to get on board due to rough seas. The coast guard was waiting for daylight to rescue them. It should be soon. Hardest moment of my carear listening to the silence after they ditched and flying the next 3 hours having no idea what happened.

Well done sir, well done !

And welcome to a.net !

Not a sir but thank you.

deebee278 wrote:

peterinlisbon wrote:

This shows how important it is to have the right equipment for these flights. I'm glad they're safe. Out of interest, isn't it possible to fly across the Pacific following the Aleutian Islands all the way from Alaska to Japan?

The weather and winds would be much more benign on the route they were taking. The PT 6 engine has been around for decades and failures are quite rare. Someone else mentioned transiting Russia on the Northern Route...Visions of 'red tape' flashed through my brain.

More like “visions of dollar bills going bye-bye”. Russians charge for everything and it’s a lot longer, if headed to Australia, Indonesia, NZ.

We just heard they have been rescued by a cargo ship and will arrive in Hawaii Monday. The 2 pilots are cold and tired but otherwise ok. It was a joint effort by two cargoships.

mm320cap wrote:

CD1013 wrote:

I was the Alaska pilot on the radio relaying all the information. We were communicating with ATC multiple ways. When they ditched there was a ship near by, but they were unable to get on board due to rough seas. The coast guard was waiting for daylight to rescue them. It should be soon. Hardest moment of my carear listening to the silence after they ditched and flying the next 3 hours having no idea what happened.

You did a fantastic job. I had a new Captain and a trainee LCA with me and we all commented on what a great job you did. Your calm and professional voice was no doubt a great source of comfort to those two. Very well done indeed.

Thank you very much. I am thankful we were in the right place at the right time, but I hope to never hear another mayday call. I will always have 121.5 tuned and turned up though.

peterinlisbon wrote:

This shows how important it is to have the right equipment for these flights. I'm glad they're safe. Out of interest, isn't it possible to fly across the Pacific following the Aleutian Islands all the way from Alaska to Japan?

It is indeed, but that doesn't you any good if your ultimate destination is Hawaii or the south pacific.

It looks like they had an onward flight filed from ITO to Pago Pago so they were probably headed somewhere down in the south pacific, maybe NZ or OZ. Brand new aircraft, yeesh.

CD1013 wrote:

I was the Alaska pilot on the radio relaying all the information. We were communicating with ATC multiple ways. When they ditched there was a ship near by, but they were unable to get on board due to rough seas. The coast guard was waiting for daylight to rescue them. It should be soon. Hardest moment of my carear listening to the silence after they ditched and flying the next 3 hours having no idea what happened.

You did a great job, ma’am! We heard the mayday but went out of range fairly quickly, heading westbound to HNL. We caught bits and pieces after that, including someone recommending putting a shoe in the door. I guess that was to avoid getting stuck in the cockpit if plane goes underwater...

I’m so glad the crew was rescued!

Glad they survived and a great effort by all those who assisted

These SE turboprops are impressive with strong capabilities performance and comfort

Still one engine though and if that fails in a bad place you may not survive


I’d still prefer the old Baron I flew in another life flying night freight, it may have been ancient and pretty beat up but I could lose an engine and the other one would take me to an airport

It sounds like they had some daylight to work with when they ditched. That was either good flight planning on their part or good fortune. The chances of a successful nighttime ditching in rough windswept seas would have to be in the neighborhood of 10^-6. But even in daylight this is a great story of survival. Hats off to them for good emergency execution and to CD1103 and the others involved for making this survivable. What a story.

Max Q wrote:

Glad they survived and a great effort by all those who assisted

These SE turboprops are impressive with strong capabilities performance and comfort

Still one engine though and if that fails in a bad place you may not survive


I’d still prefer the old Baron I flew in another life flying night freight, it may have been ancient and pretty beat up but I could lose an engine and the other one would take me to an airport

Or the scene of the crash as at Las Vegas the other day and hundreds of other times in Part 23 piston or turboprop twins. See recent KA 200 accidents.

CD1013 wrote:

mm320cap wrote:

CD1013 wrote:

I was the Alaska pilot on the radio relaying all the information. We were communicating with ATC multiple ways. When they ditched there was a ship near by, but they were unable to get on board due to rough seas. The coast guard was waiting for daylight to rescue them. It should be soon. Hardest moment of my carear listening to the silence after they ditched and flying the next 3 hours having no idea what happened.

You did a fantastic job. I had a new Captain and a trainee LCA with me and we all commented on what a great job you did. Your calm and professional voice was no doubt a great source of comfort to those two. Very well done indeed.

Thank you very much. I am thankful we were in the right place at the right time, but I hope to never hear another mayday call. I will always have 121.5 tuned and turned up though.

Super relieved to hear they are on the boat. I appreciate you sharing that information, as it unloads a significant burden from my psyche.

I have only heard one MAYDAY before... and it was only a half of one before the poor guy smacked into a mountain. Ugh. This aviation stuff can be sobering.

peterinlisbon wrote:

This shows how important it is to have the right equipment for these flights. I'm glad they're safe. Out of interest, isn't it possible to fly across the Pacific following the Aleutian Islands all the way from Alaska to Japan?

The US Army used to ferry their C-12 ELINT aircraft US to Anchorage to Adak to Midway to Wake to Guam to Okinawa to Korea.

Shemya to Hokkaido is about the same great circle distance as Adak to Midway - but a WIDE diversion is necessary to avoid Russian air space.

Haven't checked in about 10 years, but several PC-12 aircraft have often made flights from Japan to Magadan to Nome. It was the preferred route of solo small aircraft RTW flights.

http://www.earthrounders.com/

The last PC-12 ditching I've heard of was several years ago in the Sea of Okhotsk, several people on board. Professional crew flying a few friends Around the World in a single engine aircraft.https://aviation-safety.net/wikibase/wiki.php?id=17025

Still no confirmation of recovery of the pilots. Read the article carefully , it does not say pilots safely recovered.
I was just north of them and can confirm Alaska did a fantastic job of command and control of the situation. Fortunately they have SAT phone. American descended to FL200 to "take a look" but overcast skies and rough seas made that futile.
It was very difficult listening to this transpire . Prayers for the pilots and the rescuers.
If someone gets confirmation of rescue please post

CaptPat wrote:

Still no confirmation of recovery of the pilots. Read the article carefully , it does not say pilots safely recovered.
I was just north of them and can confirm Alaska did a fantastic job of command and control of the situation. Fortunately they have SAT phone. American descended to FL200 to "take a look" but overcast skies and rough seas made that futile.
It was very difficult listening to this transpire . Prayers for the pilots and the rescuers.
If someone gets confirmation of rescue please post

I have been in communication with Oakland and the two pilots are safely onboard a cargo ship heading for Hawaii now. Thank you for the kudos. I hope to never have to answer a mayday call again, but will always be listening on 121.5.

mm320cap wrote:

CD1013 wrote:

mm320cap wrote:

You did a fantastic job. I had a new Captain and a trainee LCA with me and we all commented on what a great job you did. Your calm and professional voice was no doubt a great source of comfort to those two. Very well done indeed.

Thank you very much. I am thankful we were in the right place at the right time, but I hope to never hear another mayday call. I will always have 121.5 tuned and turned up though.

Super relieved to hear they are on the boat. I appreciate you sharing that information, as it unloads a significant burden from my psyche.

I have only heard one MAYDAY before... and it was only a half of one before the poor guy smacked into a mountain. Ugh. This aviation stuff can be sobering.

I hope to never hear another mayday again. I have been flying a long time with 3 airlines and this was my first. Hope you get better sleep tonight. Thankful Alaska has been wonderful to us and understanding of what we went through. I look forward to talking to the pilot when he reaches Honolulu. He has been given my phone number.

CD1013 wrote:

CaptPat wrote:

Still no confirmation of recovery of the pilots. Read the article carefully , it does not say pilots safely recovered.
I was just north of them and can confirm Alaska did a fantastic job of command and control of the situation. Fortunately they have SAT phone. American descended to FL200 to "take a look" but overcast skies and rough seas made that futile.
It was very difficult listening to this transpire . Prayers for the pilots and the rescuers.
If someone gets confirmation of rescue please post

I have been in communication with Oakland and the two pilots are safely onboard a cargo ship heading for Hawaii now. Thank you for the kudos. I hope to never have to answer a mayday call again, but will always be listening on 121.5.

Wow!! Wonderful job!! Did you attempt to go lower to see if you could spot them? I read the ceiling was low and bad seas. I couldn't imagine how scary that was to hear that. Hopefully you will be able to meet the crew. You deserve kudos!

The Coast Guard used to have a ship parked mid way between the CONUS and Hawaii, but I don't think that has been the case in a long time. This came in handy when a Pan Am Stratocruiser ditched in 1956. Video on this: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WMk8z3h2QC8

Bradin wrote:

Does anyone have the ATC recording?

ETNIC is in the middle of the Pacific so they would have been on HF. Don't know what time of day it happened but one of 11282 8843 or 5574 KHz was likely the frequency in use and there is no coverage on liveatc.net for those. Good thing that 121.5 was tuned as none of the airline pilots would have heard the call on HF as they'd have been on selcal watch with the radios turned down.

rfields5421 wrote:

peterinlisbon wrote:

This shows how important it is to have the right equipment for these flights. I'm glad they're safe. Out of interest, isn't it possible to fly across the Pacific following the Aleutian Islands all the way from Alaska to Japan?

The US Army used to ferry their C-12 ELINT aircraft US to Anchorage to Adak to Midway to Wake to Guam to Okinawa to Korea.

For the civilians here, you should mention that the "C-12" is probably better known to most as the King Air 200/350, a twin-engine a/c.

Also slightly off-topic, but two weeks ago I watched a pair of USAF PC-12s (U-28A) delivered across the Atlantic via Lajes. Their safety net was an MC-130 escort ship, tagging along all the way from Eglin AFB to.... Souda Bay in the Med, and taking the best part of a week to do it. Very nice if you can afford it!
I haven't seen any USAF/US Army PC-12s in the Pacific region recently though....

Photos of a U-28A at Rotterdam (very pretty and anonymous, i.e. completely devoid of any air force markings or US flag), and an HC-130 acting as escort ship at Lajes back in 2009 (see photo caption)

SheikhDjibouti wrote:

Photos of a U-28A at Rotterdam (very pretty and anonymous, i.e. completely devoid of any air force markings or US flag)

This has been discussed a few times on Military Aviation.

The US military runs 'logistics and support' flights to various US Embassy and Consulate locations around the world. They use a series of small aircraft. The US Navy used to fly a Metroliner out of Naples that covered everything from Greece to Germany. There were King Air 350 aircraft in Asia a few years ago.

At various times the planes have carried US Navy, US Army or US Air Force naming on the fuselage. At other times they have been plain white. The color scheme of the aircraft in your picture is a relatively new 'low vis' US military scheme (low vis in the sense of not emphasizing the aircraft belongs to the US military).

At times the aircraft have flown with obvious US markings at the request of the destination countries, other times based upon assessments of potential danger or risk, at other times simply because the aircraft have undergone maintenance and need repainting. Often their primary base does not normally repaint aircraft, but it isn't worth flying the thing back to the US to do that.

From the pictures in the A.Net gallery, it appears that particular aircraft was based at Mildenhall, and flew extensively across Europe in 2012, 2013, 2014.

Some fly under the guise of the State Dept Aviation, too.

https://www.state.gov/aviation-support/

I'm glad everyone's alright. Bravo zulu to the Alaska crew. Things like this really show you how important it is to monitor 121.5, even if you don't think anything will ever happen. While I'm not trying to question the PC-12 crew, I'm a little surprised that they decided to try to fly so far over water, considering that the aircraft had experienced maintenance issues and a turnback so recently. I'm sure that they had their reasons, though, and the reliability of the PT-6 probably played into that. I think this crew got very lucky and at the same time insanely unlucky. Again, great job to everyone involved in the rescue, from the Alaska crew to the Coast Guard to the air traffic controllers. I think there's definitely an Archie League award in their future.

flyPIT wrote:

The Coast Guard used to have a ship parked mid way between the CONUS and Hawaii, but I don't think that has been the case in a long time. This came in handy when a Pan Am Stratocruiser ditched in 1956. Video on this: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WMk8z3h2QC8

Although Ocean Station November hasn't been around for decades, its place in transpacific mainland-to-Hawaii lore remains. Before the famous Pan Am Boeing Stratocruiser ditching on October 15, 1956 it made a cameo appearance in The High and The Mighty starring John Wayne. http://www.victoryinstitute.net/blogs/u ... he-rescue/

RobK wrote:

Bradin wrote:

Does anyone have the ATC recording?

ETNIC is in the middle of the Pacific so they would have been on HF. Don't know what time of day it happened but one of 11282 8843 or 5574 KHz was likely the frequency in use and there is no coverage on liveatc.net for those. Good thing that 121.5 was tuned as none of the airline pilots would have heard the call on HF as they'd have been on selcal watch with the radios turned down.

8843 was being used. All the MAYDAY and other airline transmissions were on 121.5, and some coordination between commercial airlines trying to assist on 123.45