Tennessee Plane Crash Involved Same Model As Maine’s Worst-Ever Air Disaster

By Ted Cohen/Patch.com

A Tennessee plane crash Sunday was eerily reminiscent of a similar but far-worse Maine accident decades ago - involving an identical twin turboprop.

The Tennessee crash with 20 people aboard involved a Havilland Canada DHC-6 Twin Otter - the same exact model that went down approaching Owl's Head Airport in 1979.

The Maine accident on May 30, 1979 took a far greater toll than Tennessee, killing all but one of the 18 people aboard the Downeast Airlines plane.

Flight 46 was the deadliest air disaster ever to have occurred in Maine.

FAA officials were still tallying the extent of the Tennessee accident, though initial indications were that injuries were minor.

The model of plane involved in both mishaps was first introduced in 1966 by de Havilland Canada, according to Wiki.

Both accidents have a second eery similarity - each went down just short of the runway near an aircraft museum.

The Owls Head Transportation Museum was within a mile of the 1979 crash. The Tennessee plane went down Sunday near the Beechcraft Heritage Museum.

The Havilland Canada DHC-6 Twin Otter over the years has been involved in 49 accidents worldwide, the first being in 1968.

The total fatality count of all 49 crashes is 128.

Only 10 of those 49 accidents each resulted in more fatalities - ranging from 18 to 28 - than the 17 killed in the Owls Head crash.