- Date
- May 18, 1997, 12:50 local (20:50 UTC)
- Place
- Anchorage, AK
- Injuries
- 1 uninjured
- Damage
- Substantial damage
- Phase of flight
- Landing
- Aircraft
- N5668ECessna 150
- Weather
- Visual (VMC) · Day
- Status
- Completed · report May 29, 1998
- Report
- Approved by Office Director
- NTSB office
- Alaska Regional Office
- FAA report
- 19970518012839A
- Case key
- 3005
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
failure of the pilot to maintain directional control of the airplane during a touch-and-go landing. Factors associated with the accident were: the rough/uneven runway, and a berm.
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 student pilot was practicing touch-and-go landings in a tailwheel equipped airplane. After touchdown on a rutted portion of the runway, the pilot added full power to takeoff again. The airplane began to drift toward the left. Full application of right rudder did not correct the left drift. The student aborted the takeoff, but the airplane swerved off the left side of the runway, and collided with a berm. The student had accrued 27 hours of total instruction.
Factual narrative
On May 18, 1997, about 1250 Alaska daylight time, a wheel equipped Cessna 150, N5668E, crashed during landing at the Goose Bay airstrip, about 9 miles northwest of Anchorage, Alaska. The airplane was being operated as a visual flight rules (VFR) local area instructional flight when the accident occurred. The airplane, operated by Alaska Air Academy, Anchorage, sustained substantial damage. The student pilot, the sole occupant, was not injured. Visual meteorological conditions prevailed. The flight originated at the Lake Hood Strip, Anchorage, about 1120.
In a telephone conversation with the National Transportation Safety Board (NTSB) investigator-in-charge (IIC) on May 18, 1997, the Director of Operations reported the student pilot was practicing touch and go landings. The airplane had been modified to a Texas Taildragger (tail-wheel) configuration. During a landing on runway 25, the student touched down on a rutted area of the runway. The pilot added power to begin a takeoff, but the airplane began to drift toward the left. The pilot added full right rudder, but the airplane continued toward the left. The pilot aborted the takeoff, and the airplane swerved off the left side of the runway and collided with a berm. The airplane received damage to the main landing gear and propeller.
The Director of Operations inspected the airplane after the accident. He reported no malfunction of the airplane's rudder cables. The student pilot had accrued 27 hours of total instruction, all accrued in the accident airplane.
An NTSB pilot/operator report (NTSB form 6120.1/2) was not returned by the operator.
Aircraft
- Registration
- N5668E
- Reported as
- Cessna 150
- Category
- Airplane
- Serial number
- 17168
- Airframe hours
- 3,030
- Engine
- Continental O-200, 100 horsepower, reciprocating
- Damage
- Substantial damage
- Flight
- Instructional · Part 91
- Operator
- Great Northern Airlines, doing business as Alaska Air Academy
- Registered owner
- James Fuerstenberg
- Airworthiness certificate
- Standard, Normal
- Last inspection
- 100 hour · May 8, 1997 · 8 hours before
- Departed
- Z41 · AK
- Destination
- Z40
- Flight plan
- Company VFR
- Airport
- Z40 · Goose Bay, runway 25, 3,000 × 75 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
- 32
- Certificate
- Student
- Medical
- Class 3, Valid Medical--no waivers/lim.
- Seat
- Left
- Flight hours
- 27 total · 27 in this make and model · 6 in the last 30 days
Weather
- Conditions
- Visual (VMC) · Day
- Wind
- 300° at 1 knots
- Visibility
- 90 statute miles
- Lowest ceiling
- 20,000 ft broken
- Temperature
- 50 °F, dew point 34 °F
- Observed at
- ANC, 9 nm away
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 N5668E · 1
Matched to the same aircraft by N-number and date.