- Date
- August 23, 1998, 16:00 local (Aug 24, 1998, 00:00 UTC)
- Place
- North Pole, AK
- Injuries
- 1 uninjured
- Damage
- Substantial damage
- Phase of flight
- Landing
- Aircraft
- N9754ACessna 170A
- Weather
- Visual (VMC) · Day
- Status
- Completed · report February 16, 2001
- Report
- Approved by Office Director
- NTSB office
- Alaska Regional Office
- FAA report
- 19980823028189A
- Case key
- 43910
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 student pilot's inadvertent ground loop/swerve during the landing roll.
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 reported he was on a solo flight to a local gravel-covered airstrip. During the landing roll, he lost control of the tail wheel equipped airplane, and it ground looped/swerved to the left side of the runway. The right main landing gear collapsed, and the right wing struck the ground. The student pilot noted in his report to the NTSB that there were no preaccident mechanical problems with the airplane.
Factual narrative
On August 23, 1998, about 1600 Alaska daylight time, a wheel equipped Cessna 170A airplane, N9754A, sustained substantial damage while landing at the Bradley Sky Ranch airstrip, North Pole, Alaska. The solo student pilot was not injured. The 14 CFR Part 91 local instructional flight operated in visual meteorological conditions without a flight plan. The flight last departed Fairbanks International Airport on August 23, time unknown.
FAA Fairbanks Flight Standards inspectors interviewed the pilot August 28. The FAA inspectors reported the pilot told them he was practicing landings in calm wind conditions at the Bradley Sky Ranch airstrip. The student pilot related that shortly after touchdown on runway 15, he lost directional control, the airplane ground looped/swerved to the left, and the right main landing gear collapsed.
In the pilot's written statement to the NTSB, he reported a crosswind caught the left side of the airplane while landing, and pushed it off the right side of the runway, collapsing the right main landing gear, and striking the right wing on the ground. He did not indicate the estimated direction or velocity of the wind.
At 1553, wind conditions at Fairbanks International Airport,16 miles west of the accident site, were reported to be from 124 degrees magnetic, at 8 knots.
An inspection of the airplane by an FAA airworthiness inspector disclosed substantial damage to the right main landing gear's gear box, the bottom of the airplane's fuselage, and the aileron on the right wing.
The pilot noted in his report to the NTSB that there was no preimpact mechanical malfunction with the airplane.
Aircraft
- Registration
- N9754A
- Reported as
- Cessna 170A
- Category
- Airplane
- Serial number
- 19215
- Airframe hours
- 1,660
- Engine
- Continental C-145-2, 145 horsepower, reciprocating
- Damage
- Substantial damage
- Flight
- Instructional · Part 91
- Registered owner
- Patrick D. Jordan
- Airworthiness certificate
- Standard, Normal
- Last inspection
- Annual · June 1, 1998 · 42 hours before
- Departed
- FAI · Fairbanks, AK
- Destination
- 95Z
- Airport
- Bradley Sky Ranch, runway 15, 4,100 × 80 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
- 37
- Certificate
- Student
- Medical
- Class 3, Valid Medical--no waivers/lim.
- Seat
- Left
- Flight hours
- 28 total · 22 in this make and model · 5 as pilot in command
Weather
- Conditions
- Visual (VMC) · Day
- Wind
- 134° at 8 knots
- Visibility
- 10 statute miles
- Lowest ceiling
- None
- Temperature
- 63 °F, dew point 43 °F
- Altimeter
- 29.00 inHg
- Observed at
- PAF, 16 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.