- Date
- October 26, 1997, 14:30 local (18:30 UTC)
- Place
- Anchorage, AK
- Injuries
- 3 uninjured
- Damage
- Substantial damage
- Phase of flight
- Landing
- Aircraft
- N4380MPiper PA-12
- Weather
- Visual (VMC) · Day
- Status
- Completed · report September 28, 1999
- Report
- Approved by Office Director
- NTSB office
- Alaska Regional Office
- FAA report
- 19971026031019A
- Case key
- 3104
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 selection of an unsuitable landing area.
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 reported he was landing his tundra tire equipped airplane on a tidal area that was covered with thin ice. During the landing roll, the main landing gear tires fell through the ice into a depression. The airplane decelerated rapidly, and then slowly nosed over.
Factual narrative
On October 26, 1997, about 1430 Alaska standard time, a tundra tire equipped Piper PA-12 airplane, N4380M, sustained substantial damage while landing at an off airport site about 20 miles south of Anchorage, Alaska. The Private certificated pilot and the two passengers aboard were not injured. The local, 14 CFR Part 91 flight operated in visual meteorological conditions without a flight plan. The flight departed the private, Sky Harbor airstrip, located in south Anchorage, about 1330. The purpose of the flight was to hunt rabbits, with an eventual return to the Sky Harbor airstrip.
During a telephone conversation with the NTSB investigator-in-charge on October 27, 1997, the pilot related he was landing the airplane on ice and snow covered terrain. He said the airplane is equipped with over-sized, 32 inch tundra tires. After touchdown in a tidal zone, the main landing gear wheels broke through an area of thin ice, and into a depression, causing the airplane to decelerate rapidly, and then slowly nose over.
The pilot reported damage to the lift struts on the right wing, and wrinkles in the tail section near the vertical stabilizer.
Aircraft
- Registration
- N4380M
- Reported as
- Piper PA-12
- Category
- Airplane
- Serial number
- 12-3316
- Engine
- Lycoming O-360-A1A, 205 horsepower, reciprocating
- Damage
- Substantial damage
- Flight
- Personal · Part 91
- Registered owner
- David D. Hultquist
- Airworthiness certificate
- Standard, Normal
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
- 42
- Certificate
- Private
- Airplane ratings
- Single-engine land, Single-engine sea
- Medical
- Class 3, Valid Medical--no waivers/lim.
- Seat
- Front
- Flight hours
- 6,000 total · 150 in this make and model · 5,900 as pilot in command · 100 in the last 90 days · 10 in the last 30 days · 1 in the last 24 hours
Weather
- Conditions
- Visual (VMC) · Day
- Wind
- Calm
- Visibility
- 100 statute miles
- Lowest ceiling
- None
- Temperature
- 25 °F, dew point 16 °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 N4380M · 1
Matched to the same aircraft by N-number and date.