- Date
- July 31, 2003, 22:00 local (Aug 1, 2003, 06:00 UTC)
- Place
- Aniak, AK
- Injuries
- 1 uninjured
- Damage
- Substantial damage
- Phase of flight
- Landing
- Aircraft
- N3694TTaylorcraft F-19
- Weather
- Visual (VMC) · Day
- Status
- Completed · report November 25, 2003
- Report
- Approved by Office Director
- NTSB office
- Alaska Regional Office
- Case key
- 57622
From the NTSB’s public API. By law, NTSB reports can’t be used as evidence in lawsuits over the accident.
On this page
Probable cause
The pilot's inadvertent touchdown, and failure to maintain clearance from trees during an aborted landing, which resulted in the nose over of the airplane. A factor associated with the accident was the soft terrain.
Sequence of events
NTSB’s coding before 2008: each occurrence and phase of flight, and the causes and factors under it. The codes are defined in NTSB’s coding manual.
Analysis
The pilot was flying over a prospective landing site located atop a mountain ridge, when he inadvertently allowed the wheels of the airplane to touchdown. The airplane bounced, and the pilot applied full engine power in an attempt to abort the landing. During the aborted landing, the right wing struck a tree at the departure end of the site, and the airplane descended onto soft tundra. The airplane nosed over and received damage to the right wing and the right wing lift strut. The pilot noted that there were no preaccident mechanical anomalies with the airplane.
Factual narrative
On July 31, 2003, about 2200 Alaska daylight time, a wheel-equipped Taylorcraft F-19 airplane, N3694T, sustained substantial damage when it collided with a tree and nosed over during an aborted landing at a remote off-airport site, located about 30 miles northeast of Aniak, Alaska. The airplane was being operated as a visual flight rules (VFR) cross-country personal flight under Title 14, CFR Part 91, when the accident occurred. The solo commercial certificated pilot was not injured. Visual meteorological conditions prevailed, and no flight plan was filed. The flight originated at the Aniak Airport, Aniak, about 2030.
During a telephone conversation with the National Transportation Safety Board (NTSB) investigator-in-charge (IIC) on August 2, the pilot reported that while flying over a prospective landing site located atop a mountain ridge, he inadvertently allowed the wheels of the airplane to touchdown. The airplane bounced, and the pilot applied full engine power in an attempt to abort the landing. During the aborted landing, the right wing struck a tree at the departure end of the site. The airplane subsequently descended onto soft tundra and nosed over, sustaining substantial damage to the right wing and the right wing lift strut.
The pilot noted that there were no preaccident mechanical anomalies with the airplane.
Aircraft
- Registration
- N3694T
- Reported as
- Taylorcraft F-19
- Category
- Airplane
- Serial number
- F-101
- Engine
- Chotia O-200A, 100 horsepower, reciprocating
- Damage
- Substantial damage
- Flight
- Personal · Part 91
- Registered owner
- Dennis J. Geise
- Airworthiness certificate
- Standard, Normal
- Departed
- ANI · Aniak, AK
- Destination
- ANI · Aniak, AK
Matched to the registry by N-number and the event date; the registry’s history has gaps, so older matches can be wrong. Compare the reported make and model.
Flight crew
As NTSB recorded them. NTSB leaves out names.
- Role
- Pilot
- Age
- 32
- Injuries
- None
- Certificates
- Flight instructor, Commercial
- Airplane ratings
- Single-engine land, Single-engine sea, Multi-engine land
- Instrument ratings
- Airplane
- Medical
- Class 2
- Flight hours
- 2,100 total · 200 in this make and model · 200 in the last 90 days · 90 in the last 30 days
Weather
- Conditions
- Visual (VMC) · Day
Other investigations on N3694T · 2
Matched to the same aircraft by N-number and date.