This is preliminary information, subject to change, and may contain errors. Any errors in this writing will be corrected when/if the NTSB preliminary report is released.
https://registry.faa.gov/AircraftInquiry/Search/NNumberResult?nNumberTxt=N94AW
 |
| Photo from Brett Flippi youtube channel (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wSzuZnVuYgM) |
- History of Flight:
On June 22, 2026, at about 0942 local time, a Cessna 208B Grand Caravan EX, N94AW, registered to Wright Air Service out of Fairbanks, AK, was substantially damaged following a forced landing near Coldfoot, Alaska. The commercial pilot and nine passengers were not injured. The Part 135 on-demand flight originated Coldfoot Airport (CXF/PACX), Alaska, at 0855, and was destined to Anaktuvuk Pass Airport (AKP/PAKP), Alaska.
The FAA reported: "Aircraft landed on rocks next to glacier river for unknown reasons."
Flightaware data shows that the airplane was cruising at 8,600 ft when it initiated a descent from cruise altitude.
A passenger onboard the airplane captured the landing sequence. The pilot selected an open area for an emergency landing. On-touch down, the airplane landed rough, the nose gear collapsed, and left wing contacted the rocky surface. The airplane came to rest in about 4 seconds. The occupants started evacuating the airplane roughly 40 seconds after the initial touch down. The engine compressor and its turbine were still running and were clearly noted in the video's audio even after the evacuation.
Figure 1: Pilot's dashboard ~2 seconds before landing (from youtube channel video linked)
The occupants were spotted by a passing airplane and rescued by helicopters about 2 hours later.
The NTSB is investigating.
Figure 2: Airplane as it came to rest (from Brett Flippi youtube channel https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wSzuZnVuYgM)
The passenger reported in the video description:
"Our flight path was from Fairbanks, to Coldfoot, to Anaktuvuk Pass. There were nine of us passengers and one pilot, on board a Cessna 208B Grand Caravan, operated by Wright Air Service. Everything seemed fine for the first leg of our trip to Coldfoot. We landed there, stopped and refueled. We took off again, headed for Anaktuvuk Pass. We were in the air for roughly 20 minutes, before the plane made a loud noise, our pilot listened for the noise and it was clear he realized something was wrong, with the plane. He turned back towards Coldfoot and tried gaining some altitude. The plane engine seemed to be revving up and down. Each time the engine seemed to rev, the entire plane lurched back and forth. After around five minutes, it was clear the engine was losing power. The pilot turned back to us and said that he was looking for a spot to land. I cinched my seatbelt tight. Moments before impact, I decided to record the event. We crashed around 20 miles North West of Coldfoot, in the Brooks Range. We were on the ground for about 30 minutes before we were spotted by other planes. After roughly two hours, a helicopter landed on a nearby gravel bar. In the helicopter were two men who worked for a drilling company nearby. They were able to take four of us at a time and fly us back to Coldfoot. After about four hours from the time of the crash, all of us were back in Coldfoot.
Thank you to our pilot, Louie, for saving our lives. His quick thinking and experience made it so we were all able to walk away. Thank you to the helicopter crew, who showed up to fly us back to Coldfoot. Thank you to everyone else involved, for taking care of us after the crash.
This is my personal experience, of what it was like to be involved in a plane crash, in Alaska. All of this video footage was filmed by me.
The plane crashed at 10:42am AKDT on 06/22/2026
Here are the coordinates of the crash site
67.53226, -150.40297"
