ANC92LA046

NTSB accident investigation · Piper PA-18A-150 · Golovin, AK · March 10, 1992

Accident · Serious injuriesLimited investigationFinal report

Date: March 9, 1992, 20:41 local (Mar 10, 1992, 00:41 UTC)
Place: Golovin, AK
Injuries: 2 serious
Damage: Substantial damage
Phase of flight: Maneuvering
Aircraft: N7685DPiper PA-18A-150
Weather: Instrument (IMC) · Night/dark
Status: Completed · report July 29, 1993
Report: Approved by Office Director
NTSB office: Alaska Regional Office
Case key: 5698

From the NTSB’s public API. By law, NTSB reports can’t be used as evidence in lawsuits over the accident.

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Probable cause

Proper altitude was not maintained. Factors to the accident were: inadvertent VFR flight into IMC, fog, snow, and night.

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.

In flight encounter with weatherManeuvering - turn to reverse direction

Weather condition - fogFactor

Weather condition - snowFactor

Light condition - nightFactor

Vfr flight into imc - inadvertentPilot in commandFactor

In flight collision with terrain/waterManeuvering - turn to reverse direction

Terrain condition - snow covered

Proper altitude - not maintainedPilot in commandCause

Analysis

While maneuvering along the coast line at a low altitude, the flight inadvertently encountered IMC and the pilot lost ground reference. The pilot decided to turn around and during the turn, the airplane collided with the sea ice.

Aircraft

Registration: N7685D
Reported as: Piper PA-18A-150
Category: Airplane
Serial number: 18-5908
Airframe hours: 3,867
Engine: Lycoming O-320-A2B, 150 horsepower, reciprocating
Damage: Substantial damage
Flight: Business · Part 91
Operator: Chris Mcdonnell
Registered owner: Chris Mcdonnell
Airworthiness certificate: Standard, Normal
Last inspection: Annual · February 25, 1992 · 32 hours before
Departed: ELI · Elim, AK
Destination: WMO · White Mountain, AK

N7685DRegistered now · Piper PA-18A 150S/N 18-5908 Airframe modelPiper PA-18A 150 Engine modelLycoming 0-320 seriesReciprocating

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: 35
Certificate: Private
Airplane ratings: Single-engine land
Medical: Class 3, Valid Medical--no waivers/lim.
Seat: Front
Flight hours: 1,030 total · 930 in this make and model · 40 in the last 90 days · 32 in the last 30 days

Weather

Conditions: Instrument (IMC) · Night/dark
Temperature: 19 °F