3 passengers suffer minor injuries in helicopter crash near Knik Glacier

Updated: 15 minutes ago Published: 15 minutes ago

PALMER – Three passengers suffered minor injuries when a sightseeing helicopter crashed in the Chugach Mountains near the Knik Glacier on Sunday in gusty winds, authorities said.

The helicopter was one of four carrying 12 passengers on a group tour into the mountainous terrain south of Mount Goode, according to Alpha Aviation, which operated the flight. The company offers its tours from the Alaska Glacier Lodge at the end of Knik River Road near Butte.

The four-seat Robinson R44 took off along with the three other helicopters at around 12:30 p.m. on Sunday, according to Clint Johnson, head of the National Transportation Safety Board in Alaska. The flight went over Grasshopper Valley and over the glacier, he said.

The helicopter crashed just below the 2,800-foot spot where the pilot had originally planned to land, Johnson said. Passengers described strong winds before the helicopter landed hard and rolled over, coming to rest on its tail in a small pond, he said.

The helicopter was caught in a sudden wind, according to Mike Neely, general manager of Alpha Aviation. It was windy in Palmer, but other helicopters doing tours in the Knik Valley had relatively calm conditions that day, Neely said.

The lead pilot was about to land when he felt “a wind shear of at least 30 to 40 knots,” he said, adding that the other pilots were able to fly out of the immediate area.

The pilot of the first helicopter was too low to abort the landing, so he tried to follow the terrain to another location, Neely said. “If he had continued to his location, it would have been much, much worse.”

Unable to reach the other location, the pilot decided to “make a hard landing,” causing the helicopter to tip over onto its side.

The pilot got the passengers out of the house and made an emergency call, Neely said. Another helicopter from Alpha Aviation took the passengers back to the lodge, he said.

They initially refused medical attention, but one of them was later taken to hospital as a precaution, Neely said.

An initial report posted Tuesday in a Federal Aviation Administration database described the incident as a hard landing with no injuries. On Thursday, the information was updated to report three passengers with minor injuries.

No further information was available on Thursday about the nature of their injuries.

The company was involved in a similar incident last winter when a helicopter carrying six passengers crashed near Knik Glacier in December 2023, injuring two people who were treated at the hospital and released, officials said at the time. The crash occurred during a “hard, unplanned landing” southwest of Lake George, the company said.