ANC05FA121

The private pilot was operating his airplane under Title 14, CFR Part 91 as a personal cross-country flight. He was participating in a group flight-seeing trip touring Alaska, that departed the state of Washington several days earlier. Each of the group's ten participants had provided their own airplanes for the tour. Prior to the accident flight, the group had been briefed by the group leader, an experienced commercial pilot with significant Alaska mountain flight experience, on the suggested route and altitudes through mountainous terrain to a rendezvous at another airport. An FAA inspector also made a presentation to the group that morning on some of the hazards associated with flying in the mountains. The group departed in small groups at close intervals. The accident pilot and two other pilots elected to initially fly a course parallel to the one suggested, up a different drainage/canyon. The intent was to join the suggested route later in the flight. A pilot flying above and behind the accident airplane noted that there was steeply rising terrain at the end on the canyon, and he started his climb before the accident pilot to clear a saddle between two peaks. He stated that the accident pilot, who was about 700-1000 feet lower than him, started his climb too late, and collided with a rock face, about 300 feet below the 5,000 feet msl saddle. The airplane was destroyed by impact and a postcrash fire. Inspection of the airplane disclosed signatures on the propeller and associated components consistent with a high power setting at impact. The pilot flying behind the accident pilot stated that there were no distress calls from the pilot prior to impact, and that the weather was not a factor in the accident. Other pilots flying in the vicinity noted that the wind was either calm or light, with no associated turbulence, with ample clearance between the ridges and the higher cloud layers.

History of flight

On August 5, 2005, about 1236 Alaska daylight time, a wheel-equipped Beech V35B airplane, N912DB, was destroyed by impact and postcrash fire when it collided with rising terrain while climbing, about 16 miles south-southeast of the McKinley Park airstrip, Denali National Park, Alaska. The private pilot and sole passenger were fatally injured. The 14 CFR Part 91 personal flight operated in visual meteorological conditions, and a VFR flight plan was filed. The flight departed Fairbanks, Alaska, about 1150, with an intended destination of Anchorage, Alaska. The airplane was owned and operated by the pilot.

The accident airplane was part of a group of ten airplanes flying from Washington and California on an aerial tour of Alaska. The group leader had taken several previous pilot groups in their own airplanes on flights to Alaska. He had also flown commercially in Alaska for several years, and at the time of the accident, operated a tour group business called "Let's Fly Alaska", in which pilots provided their own airplanes, and traveled as a group throughout Alaska before returning to their respective bases in Washington and California. The group initially met in Puyallup, Washington, and left for Alaska on August 1.

Most members of the group had attended a preflight safety briefing given the morning of the accident at the Fairbanks transient pilot's lounge by the group leader and an FAA aviation safety inspector. The FAA inspector was the designated area safety program manager for the Fairbanks Flight Standards District Office. According to the group leader and the FAA inspector, during the briefing, the group leader established a preferred route and recommended altitudes from Fairbanks following the well-defined Nenana River drainage, George Parks Highway, and the Alaska Railroad tracks, through Windy Pass via Healy and McKinley (Denali) National Park, to a group landing at Talkeetna, prior to the remaining 75 statue mile flight to Merrill Field, Anchorage. The FAA inspector also gave a safety briefing regarding the hazards of flying from visual flight rules weather into instrument meteorological conditions in mountainous terrain. The group leader, in a postaccident interview with the NTSB investigator-in-charge (IIC), indicated that the accident pilot did attend the voluntary briefing. He also noted that the accident pilot was the pilot he had been most concerned with throughout the flight, as he perceived him as reluctant to follow directions, that he flew low and close to terrain, and often made abrupt pull-ups and steep turns. A copy of the group leader's statement is included in the docket of this report, as is the IIC's digest of an interview with him, and those of other group pilots interviewed.

According to the group leader, and other members of the group, they left Fairbanks at closely staggered intervals, in one group of two, and then two groups of four. The accident pilot was in the first group of four, with one airplane ahead of him, and two behind. The pilot of the airplane immediately behind the accident airplane was in a Piper Comanche 250. He indicated that he and the accident pilot elected to deviate to the west and parallel to the planned route, up a broad valley (Riley Creek drainage area). He said he was about 3,500-4,000 feet msl, and the accident pilot was a mile or so ahead of him, and about 700-1000 feet lower. The Piper pilot said he initiated a climb as the valley narrowed into a box canyon, and they approached rising terrain with a saddle between two peaks. He said the accident pilot below and ahead of him started his climb slightly later. Shortly after the accident pilot initiated his climb, he said it appeared that the accident pilot tried to initiate a left turn away from the steeply rising terrain/saddle area, and moments later he saw a plume of smoke. He continued his climb, and said that while he does not have a lot of experience in mountain flying, he came closer to the saddle ridge then he was comfortable with. After crossing the ridge, he turned around, and attempted to locate the wreckage site, but could not. He stated that weather was not a factor in the crash, that there were a few scattered thin clouds near the ridges, with light wind and no appreciable turbulence. The Piper pilot alerted the remainder of the group, and they located the general vicinity of the accident site, and relayed that information to a FAA flight service station specialist, who alerted a search and rescue team.

An Alaska Air National Guard 210th Rescue Squadron helicopter and crew from Anchorage reached the accident site about 1500, and recovered the remains of the pilot and passenger. According to the helicopter commander, the pilot and passenger were lying outside the wreckage, down slope of the main wreckage point of rest. He noted there appeared to have been a localized postcrash flash fire. He estimated the accident site elevation as approximately 5,000 feet msl.

Personnel information

The pilot held a private pilot certificate with airplane single engine land privileges. Neither the airplane's maintenance logs, or the pilot's personal flight logbook, was discovered at the accident site, and family members indicated that they also were unable to locate the airplane's or pilot's logbooks. The flight time noted in the data fields of this report is based upon information the pilot provided in his last application for an FAA medical certificate, dated December 19, 2003, and the undated questionnaire he completed for Let's Fly Alaska. His FAA medical noted his flight experience as 6,400 hours plus, and his Let's Fly Alaska Questionnaire listed 6,600 hours plus.

It could not be determined if the pilot had completed a biennial flight review. On his Let's Fly Alaska Questionnaire, the area requesting the date of his last flight review was left blank. The IIC interviewed two certificated flight instructors who had flown with the pilot during a flight review and training seminar sponsored by the American Bonanza Society. The accident pilot flew with the initial instructor for approximately 2.5 hours on April 17, 2004, for the purpose of obtaining any remedial training and a biennial flight review. The instructor indicated that the pilot had difficulty completing the basic private pilot flight maneuvers, and after 2.5 hours, the pilot told him he didn't wish to continue the flight. The instructor suggested that perhaps he'd like to fly with another instructor, to see if he could complete the biennial review. According to the instructor, the pilot reluctantly agreed. On April 18, the accident pilot flew with another instructor. That instructor related comments similar to the first instructor, and noted that the pilot was making a lot of fundamental errors, and had difficulty flying a standard traffic pattern. He stated that the pilot became frustrated, and stopped the flight review prior to completion.

A review of the pilot's FAA flight records/history disclosed that on September 18, 2003, the pilot successfully completed an oral examination with a Van Nuys Flight Standards District Office aviation safety inspector, following an inadvertent gear-up landing. The FAA inspector spoke with the NTSB IIC on September 23, and noted that he did not give the pilot a flight evaluation, but said that they sat in the pilot's airplane while it was stabilized on jack stands, undergoing repairs to damage incurred during the gear-up landing. The inspector indicated in his report that the examination took 1.5 hours, and during the conversation with the NTSB IIC, said that the pilot seemed to have good knowledge about how his airplane and its emergency systems functioned.

Aircraft information

The airplane was a V35A, 1975 model year Beech Bonanza, registered to the pilot. It was equipped with a 285-rated horsepower Continental IO-520BB engine, and