Three of 20 Alaska aviation accidents since July 19 were fatal

The National Transportation Safety Board has recorded 20 aircraft accidents in Alaska in the last eight weeks. Three of them were fatal.

The fatal crashes were at Chitina on July 27, with three people aboard; Cape Newenham on Aug. 20, with eight; and Seldovia on Aug. 26, with four. The board has published preliminary reports on them, which describe what investigators found without saying why it happened. No causes have been determined in any of the three.

Among the rest, two people were hurt in a Cessna that went down near Cordova on Aug. 30 and one in a Cessna near Bettles on Aug. 18. The others, at Nondalton, Beluga, Arctic Village, Copper Center and Ninilchik among them, killed no one. In none of the 20 was anyone on the ground injured.

Flying is how much of Alaska gets anywhere, and the risk shows up in the numbers. The Federal Aviation Administration's Alaska aviation safety initiative cites an NTSB finding that from 2008 through 2017, Alaska's aircraft accident rate ran 2.35 times the rate for the rest of the country, and its fatal accident rate 1.34 times.