- Date
- September 3, 2005, 13:00 local (21:00 UTC)
- Place
- Fairbanks, AK
- Injuries
- 1 uninjured
- Damage
- Substantial damage
- Phase of flight
- Landing
- Aircraft
- N63995Champion 7KCAB
- Weather
- Visual (VMC) · Day
- Status
- Completed · report December 20, 2005
- Report
- Approved by Office Director
- NTSB office
- Alaska Regional Office
- FAA report
- 20050903024609A
- Case key
- 62401
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 selection of unsuitable terrain for landing, which resulted in a nose over during the landing roll. A factor contributing to the accident was a depression/ditch in the landing surface.
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 airline transport certificated pilot was landing on a gravel bar along a river. The landing area was about 1,400 feet long, and about 300 feet wide. The pilot said he flew over the area several times, looking for any hazards, and then proceeded to land. During the landing roll, the airplane encountered a depression that the pilot had not observed before. The airplane nosed over and received structural damage to the left wing lift strut and the vertical stabilizer.
Factual narrative
On September 3, 2005, about 1300 Alaska daylight time, a tundra tire-equipped Champion 7KCAB airplane, N63995, sustained substantial damage when it nosed over during the landing roll on a remote gravel bar, about 16 miles south-southwest of Fairbanks, 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 airplane was operated by the pilot. The airline transport certificated pilot, the sole occupant, was not injured. Visual meteorological conditions prevailed. The flight originated at the Fairbanks International Airport about 1200, and no flight plan was filed, nor was one required.
During a telephone conversation with the National Transportation Safety Board (NTSB) investigator-in-charge (IIC), on September 3, the pilot indicated that he was landing toward the south on a gravel bar along the Tanana River. The landing area was about 1,400 feet long, and about 300 feet wide. The pilot said he flew over the area several times, looking for any hazards, and then proceeded to land. During the landing roll, the airplane encountered a depression the pilot had not observed before. The airplane nosed over and received structural damage to the left wing lift strut, and the vertical stabilizer.
Aircraft
- Registration
- N63995
- Reported as
- Champion 7KCAB
- Category
- Airplane
- Serial number
- 196
- Engine
- Lycoming IO-320-E2B, reciprocating
- Damage
- Substantial damage
- Flight
- Personal · Part 91
- Registered owner
- Mark Meyer
- Airworthiness certificate
- Standard, Normal
- Departed
- PAFA · Fairbanks, AK
- Destination
- Fairbanks, 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
- 46
- Certificates
- Airline transport, Flight instructor, Commercial
- Airplane ratings
- Multi-engine land, Single-engine land
- Instrument ratings
- Airplane
- Medical
- Class 2
- Flight hours
- 15,000 total · 40 in this make and model · 200 in the last 90 days · 40 in the last 30 days
Weather
- Conditions
- Visual (VMC) · Day
FAA reports on this event · 1
The FAA’s own accident and incident reports, matched to the aircraft by N-number and date.