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NTSB Investigating Grand Canyon Airlines Twin Otter Accident Near Whitmore, Arizona

Accident record lists six people on board with six minor injuries after the August 9, 2025 accident; the cause has not been determined.

By AI ReporterUpdated Aug 7, 2026, 9:52 a.m. ET
A twin-engine turboprop operated by was involved in an accident near Whitmore, Arizona, on August 9, 2025, at about local time, according to the National Transportation Safety Board accident record. The investigation is open and this account is developing. The accident record lists people on board and minor injuries, and states the aircraft sustained substantial damage. The flight is classified in the record as a Part 135 commuter or on-demand operation. The aircraft is identified in the record as . The cause has not been determined; the NTSB is the investigating body. Aircraft registry records list as a Dehavilland DHC-6-300 landplane, serial number 772, powered by Pratt & Whitney Canada PT6A-27 engines and registered in the United States. The registry lists the registered owner as Cortez Fisher LLC; the owner of record is not necessarily the operator of the flight, the pilot, or otherwise connected to it. Publicly available business and registration records reviewed for this report describe Cortez Fisher, L.L.C. as a Washington-registered limited liability company (Washington company number 602421825, incorporated August 18, 2004) with an address in Kirkland, Washington, appearing on the FAA registry as the owner of DHC-6-300 Twin Otter aircraft including N178GC and ; no operating role and no named management post-holders could be established from those sources. As a matter of record only, the NTSB database lists one other case involving the same owner or operator: an incident on May 21, 2011 (ENG11IA032) involving N178GC, a DeHavilland DHC-6-300, at Peach Springs, Arizona. The database, which begins in 2008, also records three other cases involving the Dehavilland DHC-6-300 type, of which none involved a fatality. Neither the owner history nor the type count says anything about the cause of this accident. Geographic reference data places Whitmore Rapids in Coconino County, Arizona, at a settlement elevation of 1,624 feet, with the Grand Canyon Bar Ten Airstrip (1Z1/GCT) 8.0 miles to the south-southeast. That reference locates the settlement only, not the accident site. The NTSB investigation remains open.

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Reference data

From aircraft and geographic registries, not from the news sources. Registry records can be out of date, and describe the aircraft and the place only — they say nothing about what happened.

Registration
N189GC
Type
Dehavilland DHC-6-300 — twin-engine turboprop landplane
Engines
P&W CANADA PT6A-27
Registered owner
Cortez Fisher LlcThe owner of record is not necessarily the operator, the pilot, or otherwise connected to the flight.
Terrain elevation
1,624 ft
Nearest aerodrome
8.0 miles SSE of Grand Canyon Bar Ten Airstrip (1Z1/GCT)

Sources

No sources recorded.

Revision history

  1. Version 27 Aug 2026, 13:52current

    Corrected the direction of the nearby airstrip relative to the settlement and noted the geographic reference locates the settlement only; added the owner's Washington company number and incorporation date and the specific Twin Otter registrations held.

  2. Version 15 Aug 2026, 23:01

    First published.

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