Aloha IslandAir Flight 1712

Aircraft

The aircraft involved, manufactured in 1973, was a de Havilland Canada DHC-6 Twin Otter 300 registered as N707PV with serial number 400. It was first delivered to Sun Valley Key Airlines on December 18, 1973. It was sold to Aloha IslandAir on March 10, 1988, and started service during November of the same year. The aircraft was powered by two Pratt & Whitney Canada PT6A-27 engines and had logged 19,875 flight hours in 30,139 takeoff and landing cycles.^{[1][5][6][3]: 12}

Crew

In command was 30-year-old Captain Bruce Antonio Pollard.^[4][7][8] He started his aviation career at Aloha IslandAir with Princeville Airways, which was eventually formed into Aloha IslandAir. He started as a ramp agent, and then became a first officer in April 1988. He upgraded to the role of captain just 15 months later in August 1989. The captain had one other incident and one violation with the Federal Aviation Administration. The incident occurred in February 1986 with a Piper PA-28 Cherokee in Juneau, Alaska. Pollard lost horizontal directional control of his aircraft while on approach, and ground looped on the runway. The cause was determined to be malfunctioning brakes. The violation occurred four years prior to the crash of Flight 1712, when Pollard was determined by the Federal Aviation Administration to have violated 14 CFR Part 135,^[2] when he acted as pilot-in-command on five air taxi flights, despite the fact that he had not had proper certification, and for operating an aircraft in a careless or reckless matter. He had his commercial pilot licence suspended for six months. At the time of the accident, Pollard had logged 3,542 flight hours, 1,668 of which were logged on the Twin Otter 300.^[6][3]: 11 It was found out that Captain Pollard was accepted into Aloha Airlines and was training the previous two weeks to fly a Boeing 737. Therefore, he was extra fatigued.^[9]

Pollard's co-pilot was 27-year-old First Officer Philip Edwin Helfrich.^[8][4] His first position at the airline was also as a ramp agent, which started in July 1988. He began flight lessons in August 1987. With 62 flight hours, he received his private pilot licence and single-engine land rating only three months after, on November 11, 1987. He continued with flight lessons, whilst building stature in the airline by continuing with his ramp agent position. Seventeen months after receiving his PPL, with 233 flight hours logged, he received his commercial pilot licence, with single and multi-engine land and instrument ratings. Aloha IslandAir hired him as a first officer in August 1989, and completed a 14 CFR Part 135.297 flight check the same month. At the time of the accident, he had logged 425 flight hours, including 189 logged on the Twin Otter 300.^{[3]: 11–12}

Passengers

The 18 passengers included 5 girls' volleyball team players and their head coach, 3 boys' volleyball team players, and the athletic director of Molokaʻi High School.^[10][11] There were also 4 Hawaiʻi locals onboard, 2 passengers from Pennsylvania and 2 passengers from Texas.^[8] No cabin crew were onboard, as they are not required for CFR Part 135 airlines.^[7][12][13]