- Date
- December 9, 1993, 12:00 local (16:00 UTC)
- Place
- Circle City, AK
- Injuries
- 1 serious
- Damage
- Substantial damage
- Phase of flight
- Approach
- Aircraft
- N84903Aeronca BL-7AC
- Weather
- Visual (VMC) · Day
- Status
- Completed · report December 2, 1994
- Report
- Approved by Office Director
- NTSB office
- Alaska Regional Office
- FAA report
- 19931209046789A
- Case key
- 2479
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 in commands intentional flight into known adverse weather conditions which lead to an inadvertent aerodynamic stall of the aircraft. Factors contributing to the accident were the ice fog and the icing conditions.
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 in command on VFR flight told investigators that he flew through fog at minus five degrees (-5 f) and collected ice on windshield and wing lift struts. The aircraft inadevertantly entered an aerodynamic stall when slowed to approach speed and impacted short of runway.
Factual narrative
On December 9, 1993, at 1200 Alaska standard time, an Aeronca 7AC ski-equipped airplane, N84903, stalled in the traffic pattern and crashed at Circle City, Alaska. The airplane had departed North Pole, Alaska, near Fairbanks at 1130 under 14 CFR Part 91, while on a personal flight. No flight plan was filed and it was conducted as a VFR flight in visual meteorological conditions. The private pilot, as sole occupant, was seriously injured and the airplane was substantially damaged.
The pilot told the FAA that he had "flown through some fog" en route and remembered ice built up on his windshield and lift struts during the descent to Circle City. He said that while in the traffic pattern the left wing dropped, he added power and used full opposite aileron, and the right wing fell and the airplane stalled and crashed in the brush near the field.
The weather at the field at the time was minus (-5) five degrees (F) with visibility three miles in ice fog.
FAA records indicated that the private pilot's medical certificate had expired as of July 1993.
Aircraft
- Registration
- N84903
- Reported as
- Aeronca BL-7AC
- Category
- Airplane
- Serial number
- 3622
- Airframe hours
- 3,515
- Engine
- Continental C-90-12F, 90 horsepower, reciprocating
- Damage
- Substantial damage
- Flight
- Personal · Part 91
- Operator
- Kent L. Sherman
- Registered owner
- Kent L. Sherman
- Airworthiness certificate
- Standard, Normal
- Last inspection
- Annual · May 28, 1992 · 182 hours before
- Departed
- FAI · North Pole, AK
- Airport
- KQ3 · Circle City (New), runway 15, 3,000 × 60 ft, gravel
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
- 34
- Certificate
- Private
- Airplane ratings
- Single-engine land
- Medical
- Class 3, Valid Medical--w/ waivers/lim
- Seat
- Front
- Flight hours
- 459 total · 357 in this make and model · 459 as pilot in command · 25 in the last 90 days · 5 in the last 30 days · 1 in the last 24 hours
Weather
- Conditions
- Visual (VMC) · Day
- Wind
- Calm
- Visibility
- 3 statute miles
- Lowest ceiling
- 800 ft overcast
- Temperature
- -6 °F
FAA reports on this event · 1
The FAA’s own accident and incident reports, matched to the aircraft by N-number and date.
Other investigations on N84903 · 1
Matched to the same aircraft by N-number and date.