Anti-anxiety drug ruled a factor in Alaska air crash

Thursday, July 18, 2002

By MIKE CHAMBERS
THE ASSOCIATED PRESS

JUNEAU, Alaska -- The pilot of a sightseeing plane that crashed near Haines last year, killing all aboard, was taking an anti-anxiety drug that should have disqualified him from flying, a report by the National Transportation Safety Board said.

Pilot Chad Beer, 26, of Juneau had been prescribed the drug Paroxetine by a doctor three months before the July 2001 crash that also killed five passengers, the NTSB said in a report released Monday.

Beer was prescribed the drug, which is marketed under the name Paxil, to combat anxiety over flying in bad weather and giving presentations to tourists during flights.

The drug is not approved by the Federal Aviation Administration. Beer and his doctor did not divulge his use of the medication to his employer, L.A.B. Flying Service of Haines, said NTSB crash investigator Clint Johnson.

Medical records show the physician informed Beer he should not fly if the drug impaired him at all. The physician, who was not identified in the report, also allegedly told Beer that he would make the information available to his employer if asked.

A final report listing the cause of the crash is to be released.

Beer was flying a Cherokee Six plane on a 90-minute sightseeing tour of Glacier Bay National Park when he hit a mountain at about 5,500 feet in bad weather.

Beer was flying with another L.A.B plane at the time of the crash. The pilot of the second plane, who was not identified, said he advised Beer against flying through a pass near Davidson Glacier due to low clouds, rain and fog.

Beer's last radio transmission said that he was confident the weather would improve on the other side of the pass.

The pilot of the second aircraft took an alternate route and returned to Skagway.

Also killed in the crash was tour guide Marianne Cederberg, 55 of Toronto, and four German tourists. The tourists were Helmut Auer, of Baden-Wurtemberg; Martin Federhofer, of Hamburg; and Uwe Kahlbohm, 59, and his wife, Siegrid, 65, of Bremerhaven.

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