- Date
- September 10, 1983, 12:00 local (17:00 UTC)
- Place
- Kotzebue, AK
- Injuries
- 1 fatal, 1 uninjured
- Damage
- Destroyed
- Phase of flight
- Initial climb
- Aircraft
- N3421PPiper PA-18
- Weather
- Visual (VMC) · Day
- Status
- Completed
- Report
- Approved by Office Director
- NTSB office
- Alaska Regional Office
- FAA report
- 19830910047809A
- Case key
- 4056
From the NTSB’s public API. By law, NTSB reports can’t be used as evidence in lawsuits over the accident.
On this page
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 plt & his wife had flown to an area where she had seen a caribou that she wanted to shoot. After landing on a gravel bar, she shot the caribou, but then complained of a bad headache & vision problems. The plt reported that they loaded the meat & horns in the acft, but in the meantime, his wife's headache had gotten worse. He thought that shortly after takeoff, at aprx 20 ft AGL, his wife made an unusual sound & he felt a strong force on the right rudder. (Later, he stated that he thought she had a seizure.) Reportedly, he shouted for her to get off of the controls, then felt a loss of lift & was unable to overcome the rudder force. Subsequently, the acft crashed on a river bank. His wife received a head injury & was fatally injured. An autopsy of the plt's wife did not verify that she had a seizure.
Aircraft
- Registration
- N3421P
- Reported as
- Piper PA-18
- Category
- Airplane
- Serial number
- 18-6775
- Airframe hours
- 4,000
- Engine
- Lycoming O-320, 150 horsepower, reciprocating
- Damage
- Destroyed
- Flight
- Personal · Part 91
- Registered owner
- James P. Jacobson
- Airworthiness certificate
- Standard, Normal
- Last inspection
- Annual · June 4, 1983 · 60 hours before
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
- 41
- Certificate
- Commercial
- Airplane ratings
- Single-engine land, Multi-engine land, Single-engine sea
- Instrument ratings
- Airplane
- Medical
- Class 2, Valid Medical--no waivers/lim.
- Seat
- Front
- Flight hours
- 4,712 total · 3,500 in this make and model · 4,579 as pilot in command · 150 in the last 90 days · 75 in the last 30 days · 3 in the last 24 hours
Weather
- Conditions
- Visual (VMC) · Day
- Wind
- 360° at 12 knots, gusting 15
- Visibility
- 5 statute miles
- Lowest ceiling
- 1,200 ft overcast
- Temperature
- 28 °F, dew point 19 °F
FAA reports on this event · 1
The FAA’s own accident and incident reports, matched to the aircraft by N-number and date.