- Date
- May 25, 1992, 12:40 local (20:40 UTC)
- Place
- Funter Bay, AK
- Injuries
- 3 uninjured
- Damage
- Substantial damage
- Phase of flight
- Maneuvering
- Aircraft
- N15950Piper PA-32-300
- Weather
- Instrument (IMC) · Day
- Status
- Completed · report May 26, 1993
- Report
- Approved by Office Director
- NTSB office
- Alaska Regional Office
- FAA report
- 19920525016479A
- Case key
- 5730
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 attempted flight into known adverse weather.
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 received a weather briefing and received AIRMET sierra which stated IFR conditions and mountain obscuration for southeast Alaska. He was attempting to fly through Funter pass to gustavus when he encountered deteriorating weather. He began a turn to reverse direction and had to stop the turn to avoid some eagles. The airplane entered an obscuration close to a hill and he steepened his turn and attempted to stop his descent. The airplane struck a tree with the left wing, but continued to fly and landed at juneau, Alaska.
Aircraft
- Registration
- N15950
- Reported as
- Piper PA-32-300
- Category
- Airplane
- Serial number
- 32-7340075
- Airframe hours
- 2,800
- Engine
- Lycoming IO-540-KIA5, 300 horsepower, reciprocating
- Damage
- Substantial damage
- Flight
- Part 135
- Operator
- Steve R. Wilson, doing business as Air Excursions
- Registered owner
- Steve R. Wilson
- Airworthiness certificate
- Standard, Normal
- Last inspection
- 100 hour · January 2, 2000 · 85 hours before
- Departed
- JUN · Juneau, AK
- Destination
- GST · Gustavus, AK
- Flight plan
- VFR
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
- 28
- Certificate
- Airline transport
- Airplane ratings
- Single-engine land, Multi-engine land, Single-engine sea
- Instrument ratings
- Airplane
- Medical
- Class 2, Valid Medical--w/ waivers/lim
- Seat
- Left
- Flight hours
- 4,500 total · 2,500 in this make and model · 4,400 as pilot in command · 150 in the last 90 days · 75 in the last 30 days · 4 in the last 24 hours
Weather
- Conditions
- Instrument (IMC) · Day
- Wind
- 330° at 10 knots, gusting 15
- Lowest ceiling
- 2,000 ft overcast
- Temperature
- 50 °F
FAA reports on this event · 1
The FAA’s own accident and incident reports, matched to the aircraft by N-number and date.