NAVAJO CHIEFTAIN: Luggage panel suspected in Kodiak crash; airline doubts it's the sole factor.
A plane crash in Kodiak that killed six people and injured four more this weekend may have been precipitated by a luggage panel unexpectedly swinging open minutes after the plane took off, according to the National Transportation Safety Board.
Though the cause of the crash remains undetermined, the same panel swinging open on other Piper PA-31 Navajo Chieftains has caused two previous crashes in Alaska, NTSB accident investigator Clint Johnson said.
"There have been some incidents and accidents that did result from the door coming open," Johnson said. "We don't know yet if there are similarities."
The nine-passenger twin-engine plane -- operated by Servant Air -- went down Saturday afternoon, shortly after what passengers described as the compartment door swinging open. The chartered flight was flying from Kodiak to Homer, where the plane's passengers planned to celebrate Russian Orthodox Christmas on Monday.
Johnson wouldn't speculate about the cause of the crash, saying any number of factors could have been to blame and that the full investigation will take time to complete.
The fuselage, which investigators have recovered and laid out in a maintenance hangar, was to undergo inspection beginning Tuesday, once a Piper accident investigator arrived to assist, Johnson said. While the NTSB has the lead on the investigation, the company official will assist with technical product information, he said.
The plane carried nine passengers who belonged to several Old Believer communities near Homer. They were flying home from Kodiak, where many of them were commercial fishing.
The four people who survived the crash -- Karnely Ivanov, 32, of Anchor Point; Feodot Basargin, 33, of Anchorage; Anton Rijkoff, 30, of Anchorage; and Andrean Basargin, 25, of Homer -- appeared to have been sitting in the rear of the plane.
The ones sitting forward were killed: pilot Robin Starrett, 50, of Kodiak; Stefan F. Basargin, 36; Pavel F. Basargin, 30; Zahary F. Martushev, 25; Iosif F. Martushev, 15; and Andrian Reutov, 22, all of whom lived in the Homer area.
In Razdolna on the Kenai Peninsula, four funerals will be held today for two sets of brothers killed in the crash -- the Basargins and Martushevs.
DOOR OPENED IN '90, '96 CRASHES
According to online NTSB statistics, of the 1,765 aircraft accidents in Alaska since 1995, 38 have involved Piper Navajos, including two in 2007. Almost all involved pilot or maintenance errors. Three of the Navajo crashes have caused fatalities.
While none of the fatal Alaska crashes involved the luggage compartment door, there have been at least two documented cases of a baggage compartment opening and causing crashes on Navajos here, according to NTSB reports available online.
The first took place in April 1990, when the compartment on a Navajo taking off from Deadhorse popped loose, causing an engine cover to separate and strike the plane's horizontal stabilizer. There were no injuries.
An NTSB investigation found that the latching spring that exerts pressure to close the handle was missing, the report said. The operator had modified it to include an unauthorized safety device to keep the door shut without it being locked shut, according to the report.
The next Alaska crash involving the door was in May 1996. That airplane, operated by Cape Smythe Air Service in Barrow, was taking off from Point Hope and bound for Wainwright. The pilot had just loaded the nose compartment with luggage, according to the accident report. The pilot visually checked the hatch and, thinking it was secure, took off.
The take-off was normal until the plane's nose lifted in the air, according to the report.
"Baggage and boxes exited the nose baggage compartment and fell through the left engine's propeller," the report says. The pilot tried unsuccessfully to return to Point Hope and was instead forced to crash-land on sea ice.
"Just prior to touching down, the airplane started a slow, uncontrolled roll to the left," the report says.
There were two serious injuries, two minor injuries and two people were not injured, according to the report.
The pilot in that case told investigators she was under the impression the PA-31 would not fly when the forward baggage door was open, though the company's training program did not discuss flying with the door open, according to the report. The crash was attributed, in part, to pilot error for failing to check the hatch, the report said.
The chances of a panel coming loose and causing a plane to go down without something else happening are pretty slim, Servant Air spokesman Ted Panamarioff said.
"You've got all kinds of Monday morning quarterbacks, but there's nobody that could ever convince me that could be true in and of itself," he said.
Piper officials, located in Vero Beach, Fla., did not immediately return a phone message seeking comment.
The luggage door in question measures about 3 1/2 feet wide and 2 1/2 feet high, Johnson said. It sits directly in front of the pilot's door on the side of the plane's nose.
Servant Air, which serves a half-dozen communities near Kodiak, had owned the 1979 Navajo since 2004 and has never had a problem with it, Panamarioff said.
As with many small air charter companies, it is mostly the pilot's responsibility to load the luggage and secure the door, and Starrett, a retired Coast Guard pilot, was a good and capable pilot, Panamarioff said.
"The potential for a plane to take off with the door open -- it's not going to happen," he said. "He would have seen it; it was right in front of his face."
Find James Halpin online at adn.com/contact/jhalpin or call him at 257-4589.
Survivors of this weekend's airplane crash in Alaska, United States say they saw the forward cargo door of their Piper Piper PA-31 Navajo Chieftain swing open shortly after takeoff. The plane crashed into frigid waters a short distance from the runway, killing six of the ten on board, including the pilot, and leaving the other four hospitalized.

The US National Transportation Safety Board (NTSB) is investigating the accident, and NTSB investigator Clint Johnson said "There have been some incidents and accidents that did result from the door coming open. We don't know yet if there are similarities." He refused to speculate on accident cause, pointing out that a full investigation would take some time to complete.

The remains of the fuselage have been laid out in a maintenance hangar close to the Kodiak Island accident site and is scheduled for examination tomorrow pending arrival of an accident investigation representative from Piper, who will provide detailed technical assistance. The nine-passenger complement had chartered the Servant Air plane to fly to Homer, and represented maximum capacity for the twin-engined plane.

It appears that the survivors were seated at the rear of the plane. The deceased were identified as pilot Robin Starrett, 50, of Kodiak and five Homer residents - Stefan F. Basargin, 36, Pavel F. Basargin, 30, Zahary F. Martushev, 25, Iosif F. Martushev, 15, and Andrian Reutov, 22. The survivor's names have now also been released; they are Karnely Ivanov, 32, of Anchor Point, Feodot Basargin, 33, of Anchorage, Anton Rijkoff, 30, of Anchorage, and Andrean Basargin, 25, of Homer.

There have been two previous cases of Alaskan Piper Navajo crashes confirmed to have been caused by open forward cargo hatches. In April 1990 a compartment opened during takeoff from Deadnight; this caused separation of an engine cover which proceeded to strike and damage the horizontal stabilizer. No-one was injured.

It was discovered that a vital spring designed to exert pressure and thus keep the door shut was missing; the operator had improvised its own device to shut the door without correctly locking it.

The second crash occurred in May 1996. A Cape Smythe Air Services owned-and-operated aircraft attempting takeoff at Point Hope had its forward door unexpectedly open as the nose lifted off. Cargo went through the left propeller, forcing an emergency crash landing on the ice severely injuring two people. 

The pilot had loaded the hold and then visually inspected the door.  Under the false impression that it had been secured properly he proceeded to takeoff. He had originally attempted to turn the aircraft around and told the NTSB he had thought that the aircraft should have been able to fly despite the open door, although he appreciated aircraft documentation did not specifically mention such conditions.

Small, local-based Servant Air had been operating the 1979 aircraft since 2004 without any difficulties. As with many such carriers, the pilot is responsible for loading and checking the door. The door is approximately 3 1/2 feet wide and 2 1/2 feet high.