RE misty fjords crash
A personal note. Ive been to misty fjords twice, once by boat in 1963 and again about 4 years ago by that same flight. The normal routine is to fly from Kethikan into the sea level fjord to a floating dock anchored in a relatively shallow area of 150 feet deep near one shoreline. The rest of the fjord(s) are over 1000 ft deep. meanwhile a high speed tour boat which leaves ketchikan a few hours earlier meet them on the floating dock, and the return trip is by the boat. Some Boat passengers swap - and fly back. The surrounding area is mostly half mile wide steep clIffs going up 3000 to 4000 feet as I recall( will stand corrected on total height if good topo map can be found ) So to fly in the standard route is to fly in thru the bottom of the U. and land and taxi to dock.
Takeoff is towards the so called open end of U which sits at right angles to the main fjord entrance, and the " open end ' of u terminates in a 2000 to 3000 foot moderately rising mountain.
What seems to be puzzling is the lake mentioned is sort of at right angles to the U. With the lack of more detailed weather - MY speculation is that ** probably* after takeoff, the plane was making a 180 degree turn to fly back out the bottom of the U in marginal weather, and may have impacted about hjalfway thru the turn being maybe 500-1000 feet short of clearing the cliffs on the side of the U.
The turboporop used has more than sufficent power to climb out under normal conditions and it is starting from isea level
It is a beautiful area and on a clear day spectacular- but weather in that area does change rapidly and there is bucu rain.