ANC94GA041 · Grumman G21A
State of Alaska Grumman G21A · Accident: in flight collision with terrain/water en route
From Juneau International Airport (JNU) to Ted Stevens Anchorage International Airport (ANC)
Event
- NTSB case
- ANC94GA041
- Event typeAccident: someone killed or seriously injured, or the aircraft substantially damaged (NTSB definition). Incident: an occurrence that affected or could have affected safety, short of that. Glossary
- Accident
- InvestigationHow far the investigation had got when the record was published: preliminary, ongoing, final or completed. Unknown where the source does not say. Glossary
- Completed
- API-reported fatalities
- 0 · all aircraft and ground
- Ground fatalities
- 0
- OperationWhat kind of flying it was, grouped by the rules it flew under: airline (US Part 121), air taxi and commuter (Part 135), general aviation (Part 91 and similar), military or government. Glossary
- Government
- WeatherVisual meteorological conditions (VMC): good enough to fly by looking outside. Instrument conditions (IMC): cloud or low visibility, flying by instruments. Glossary
- Visual Meteorological Cond
Grumman G21A
- Aircraft type
- Grumman G21
- Category
- Airplane
- RegistrationThe aircraft's tail number, such as N12345 or G-ABCD. Registrations are reissued, so the same one years apart can be a different aircraft. Glossary
- N741
- Operator
- State of Alaska
- Onboard fatalities
- Unknown
- Route
- From Juneau International Airport (JNU), Juneau, AKTo Ted Stevens Anchorage International Airport (ANC), Anchorage, AK
- Aircraft age
- Not recorded
- Flight rulesThe regulations the flight operated under: in the US, Part 91 (general aviation), Part 121 (airlines), Part 135 (air taxi and commuter) and others; for flights abroad, the NTSB's coarser commercial or non-commercial code. Glossary
- Public Aircraft
- Phase of flightThe stage of the flight when things started to go wrong: standing, taxi, takeoff, initial climb, en route, maneuvering, approach or landing. Glossary
- En route · climb to cruise
- First occurrenceThe single coded event the NTSB judges best describes what happened (records from 2008 on). Older records name the first occurrence in the sequence instead. Glossary
- In flight collision with terrain/water
- DamageDestroyed: beyond practical repair. Substantial: damage that affects the structure, performance or handling and normally needs major repair. Minor: less than that. Glossary
- Substantial
Cause areas
- Pilot in command › In-flight planning/decision, improper
Not plotted · Location withheld: coordinates are missing, conflicting, invalid, or have no accepted acquisition method. No substitute location has been invented.
NTSB narrative
THE STATE-OPERATED AMPHIBIAN WAS UNABLE TO OUTCLIMB RISING TERRAIN AND IMPACTED THE MARGERIE GLACIER, COMING TO REST AT 9,650 FT MSL. PILOT HAD NOT FLOWN SINCE LAST PROFICIENCY CHECK ON 11/27/93. PILOT'S CHECKS WERE CONDUCTED BY A CIVILIAN EMPLOYEE WHO REPORTED DIRECTLY TO THE PILOT. PILOT DID NOT PERFORM WEIGHT & BALANCE. AIRPLANE 1,403 LBS OVER MAX GROSS WEIGHT. ADDITIONALLY, 80 LBS OF FROZEN WATER WAS FOUND IN THE BILGES OF THE HULL. AT THE POWER AND CARB AIR TEMP SETTINGS USED BY THE PILOT, THE AIRPLANE REACHED MAX PERFORMANCE AT APRX 5,000 FT MSL. INVESTIGATION DELEGATED TO THE U.S. BY CANADA.
Probable cause
THE PILOT'S IMPROPER DECISION IN ATTEMPTING TO OUTCLIMB THE RISING TERRAIN WITH THE EXISTING AIRPLANE CLIMB PERFORMANCE. FACTORS WHICH CONTRIBUTED TO THE ACCIDENT WERE: THE PILOT'S INADEQUATE PREFLIGHT OF THE AIRPLANE, THE OVER MAXIMUM GROSS WEIGHT OF THE AIRPLANE, HIGH TERRAIN, HIGH DENSITY ALTITUDE, THE PILOT'S LACK OF RECENT FLYING EXPERIENCE, HIS OVERCONFIDENCE IN HIS AIRMANSHIP ABILITY, QUESTIONABLE TESTING OF THE PILOT'S FLYING COMPETENCY AND PROFICIENCY, AND THE STATE OF ALASKA'S INADEQUATE OVERSIGHT OF THE AVIATION PROGRAM WHICH ALLOWED MANAGEMENT TO DISREGARD THEIR OWN REGULATIONS.
Verbatim NTSB analysis and probable cause from the NTSB dataset
Sources
NTSB record ANC94GA041
- Event ID
- 20001206X00826
- Case number
- ANC94GA041
- Dataset
- historical-pre2008
- Source SHA-256
- 89e2df6d848e7ab3b42e7d7c7a03ff403303057a26ca04c95b3ea67201c3ce74
Source notes (4)
- Unreviewed is an editorial label, not an investigation status. API-sourced is not report-checked or human-reviewed. Explicit event totals are used without summing aircraft injury tables; onboard allocation is withheld. Unknown values remain unknown. The operation category is mapped from the NTSB-reported FAR part and has not been reviewed.
- Filled from the NTSB case API where the bulk record had no value: investigation status. Values present in the bulk record are kept.
- The date is the local date, which is the same as the UTC date the NTSB stores.
- API snapshot SHA-256: 3f0c99936be3c8b07a9132f333f88126af43e299797aeeeff06037b6f4aba957; retrieved 2026-09-18T21:22:28.913Z.