Rust's Flying Service de Havilland DHC2 accident
de Havilland DHC2 · Accident: loss of control on ground/water during landing
From Lake Hood Seaplane Base (LHD) to an unrecorded destination
Event
- NTSB case
- ANC94LA142
- 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
- Charter & commuter
- 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
de Havilland DHC2
- Aircraft type
- de Havilland DHC2
- 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
- N1433Z
- Operator
- Rust'S Flying Service
- Onboard fatalities
- Unknown
- Route
- From Lake Hood Seaplane Base (LHD), Anchorage, AKTo not recorded
- 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
- Part 135: Air Taxi & Commuter
- 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
- Landing · landing roll
- 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
- Loss of control on ground/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 › Compensation for wind conditions, inadequate
- Pilot in command › In-flight planning/decision, inadequate
Approximate · Coordinates as recorded by the NTSB; no uncertainty radius is established.
NTSB narrative
THE PILOT WAS LANDING A FLOAT EQUIPPED AIRPLANE IN A SMALL HARBOR ADJACENT TO AN OCEAN CHANNEL. THE ON-DEMAND CHARTER FLIGHT WAS TRANSPORTING FIVE PASSENGERS TO A REMOTE CABIN. DUE TO LARGE OCEAN SWELLS IN THE CHANNEL, THE PILOT ELECTED TO LAND IN THE HARBOR AND DURING THE LANDING RUNOUT, ENCOUNTERED A TAILWIND THAT EXTENDED THE WATER RUN. AS THE AIRPLANE TRAVELED ABEAM A BREAK IN THE SHORELINE AT THE HARBOR ENTRANCE, IT WAS HIT BY AN UNEXPECTED GUST OF WIND FROM THE RIGHT. THE AIRPLANE BEGAN TO TURN TOWARD THE RIGHT. ALL ATTEMPTS BY THE PILOT TO CONTROL THE AIRCRAFT WERE INEFFECTIVE. THE AIRPLANE STRUCK A BEACH AREA AT THE NORTH END OF THE HARBOR.
Probable cause
THE PILOT'S INADEQUATE IN-FLIGHT PLANNING AND INADEQUATE COMPENSATION FOR THE WIND CONDITIONS. AN INITIAL TAIL WIND AND LATER A CROSSWIND WERE FACTORS IN THE ACCIDENT.
Verbatim NTSB analysis and probable cause from the NTSB dataset
Sources
NTSB record ANC94LA142
- Event ID
- 20001206X02171
- Case number
- ANC94LA142
- 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: 4c4469d6fd6de60b14ca6c0297bdf7e4033037b17fd6dcc5259ef2b6edbcaced; retrieved 2026-09-18T18:08:09.534Z.