Electrical Problem Turns Ravn Flight Around

A Ravn Alaska de Havilland Dash-8 taxiing in Anchorage. Photo FlightAware 

Jay Barrett/KMXT

The afternoon Ravn Alaska flight Tuesday from Anchorage to Kodiak was turned around when a warning light went off in the cockpit indicating an electrical problem.

“A caution light went on indicating that there was a failed inverter, which is basically like a fuse. And based on the location of where they were in-flight, it made the most sense to turn around and land in Anchorage,” Ravn’s spokesperson Charlotte Sieggreen said. “It was a quick fix and the plane was up and running in a couple of hours.”

Some passengers stated on Friends of Kodiak that they saw and smelled acrid smoke, but saw no flames. The plane returned to Anchorage without incident.

Chris Shaver, an air safety investigator with the National Transportation Safety Board in Anchorage, said the pilots handled the situation according to proper procedures.

“We just received a notification that one of the Ravn flights had a smoke indication, smell of smoke in the cockpit, and had returned for a landing in Anchorage,” Shaver said. “Shortly afterwards we contacted Ravn and spoke with their safety team and their maintenance directors and found out basically it was a malfunction in one of the electrical devices. They turned that device off when they smelled the smoke and the smoke went away immediately.”

Shaver said the incident didn’t rise to the level where the NTSB would start a formal investigation and considers the matter closed.

Flight 890 is flown by a twin-turboprop de Havilland Dash-8, which departs Anchorage daily at around 2 p.m. for Kodiak.