3 passengers suffer minor injuries in helicopter crash near Knik Glacier

PALMER — Three passengers suffered minor injuries after a flightseeing helicopter crashed in the Chugach Mountains in windy conditions near Knik Glacier on Sunday, authorities say.

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

The four-seat Robinson R44 took off with the three other helicopters at about 12:30 p.m. Sunday, according to Clint Johnson, Alaska chief for the National Transportation Safety Board. The tour crossed Grasshopper Valley and overflew the glacier, he said.

The helicopter crashed just below a site at 2,800 feet where the pilot originally planned to set down, Johnson said. Passengers described high winds before the helicopter landed hard and rolled over, coming to rest with its tail in a small pond, he said.

A sudden wind shear caught the helicopter, according to Mike Neely, Alpha Aviation’s general manager. It was windy in Palmer but other helicopters flying tours up the Knik Valley experienced fairly calm conditions earlier that day, Neely said.

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

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

Unable to get to the other site, he said, the pilot “elected to do a hard landing” and then the helicopter tipped on its side.

The pilot got the passengers out and sent out an emergency alert, Neely said. Another Alpha Aviation helicopter brought the passengers back to the lodge, he said.

They initially declined medical attention but later one was seen at a hospital as a precaution, Neely said.

An initial report posted Tuesday on a Federal Aviation Administration database described the incident as a hard landing that resulted in no injuries. The information had been updated as of Thursday to reflect three passengers with minor injuries.

There was no additional information available Thursday about the nature of their injuries.

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