Scientific worker and licensed professional deaths in Alaska, 1990-2002

Between 1990-2002, 797 Alaskans died while working. After a scientific survey team member drowned, we examined the hazards of traumatic death to scientific and professional workers in Alaska.

Surveillance and analysis methods for acute traumatic occupational injuries: The Alaska Occupational Injury Surveillance System (AOISS) uses direct investigation, jurisdictional agency reports, and death certificates to gather data for active surveillance on occupational injury deaths in Alaska. We searched AOISS for deaths which occurred while engaged in scientific or professional work. Commercial pilots, fishermen, loggers, taxi drivers and miners were excluded, as these have been previously studied.

During 1990-2002, 85 scientific/professional worker deaths (including 2 suicides) occurred. Fish, game, and mountaineering guides accounted for 28 (33%) of the worker deaths, followed by biologists, who accounted for 11 (13%). Aircraft crashes accounted for 42 (49%) of all these deaths, followed by drownings, 12 (14%), and falls, 9 (11%). A seismologist was fatally mauled by a bear. Of the 14 hunting guide fatalities, 11 were the result of aircraft crashes, one was a suicide, one was a drowning, and one resulted from a motor vehicle crash. Of the 11 hunting guide fatalities, eight died in aircraft crashes, one drowned, one walked into an aircraft prop, and one sustained a fatal head injury in a fall.

Scientific and professional workers in Alaska experienced a substantial number of fatalities from traumatic injury. Nearly half of these deaths occurred in aircraft crashes.