[1] The leg in which the aircraft crashed was expected to take 25 minutes, on visual flight rules under provisions of 14 CFR Part 135.

The aircraft involved, manufactured in 1973, was a de Havilland Canada DHC-6 Twin Otter 300 registered as N707PV with serial number 400.

The aircraft was powered by two Pratt & Whitney Canada PT6A-27 engines and had logged 19,875 flight hours in 30,139 takeoff and landing cycles.

The violation occurred four years prior to the crash of Flight 1712, when Pollard was determined by the Federal Aviation Administration to have violated 14 CFR Part 135,[2] when he acted as pilot-in-command on five air taxi flights, despite the fact that he had not had proper certification, and for operating an aircraft in a careless of reckless matter.

With 62 flight hours, he received his private pilot licence and single-engine land rating only three months after, on November 11, 1987.

Aloha IslandAir hired him as a first officer in August 1989, and completed a 14 CFR Part 135.297 flight check the same month.

[10][11][3]: 8 The National Transportation Safety Board determined that the probable cause of the accident was the decision of Captain Pollard to continue flying under the visual flight rules despite flying into instrument meteorological conditions at night, which obscured rising mountainous terrain which lead to an eventual impact with the mountains.

The board also stated that the accident was influenced by Aloha IslandAir management's inadequate supervision of staff, training, and operations.

Additionally, there was a lack of sufficient oversight from the Federal Aviation Administration regarding Aloha IslandAir during a time of significant operational growth and expansion.