Taquan Air Service Flight 2
Cessna 208 · Accident: on ground/water collision with object while taxiing
From Ketchikan Harbor Seaplane Base (5KE) to Craig Seaplane Base (CGA)
Event
- NTSB case
- ANC95LA023
- 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
Cessna 208
- Aircraft type
- Cessna 208
- 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
- N242SS
- Operator
- Taquan Air Service
- Onboard fatalities
- Unknown
- Route
- From Ketchikan Harbor Seaplane Base (5KE), Ketchikan, AKTo Craig Seaplane Base (CGA)
- 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
- Taxi · from runway
- 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
- On ground/water collision with object
- 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 › Unsuitable terrain or takeoff/landing/taxi area, selected
Approximate · Coordinates as recorded by the NTSB; no uncertainty radius is established.
NTSB narrative
THE FLOAT EQUIPPED AIRPLANE STRUCK A PARTIALLY SUBMERGED LOG DURING A SALT WATER LANDING. THE PILOT REPORTED HE LOOKED AT THE LANDING SITE PRIOR TO LANDING, BUT HIS VISION WAS RESTRICTED BY SUN GLARE AND A THIN LAYER OF FOG SITTING ON THE WATER'S SURFACE. SHORTLY AFTER THE PILOT REDUCED POWER TO SLOW THE AIRPLANE'S TAXI SPEED, THE RIGHT FLOAT STRUCK A LOG. THE AIRPLANE VEERED SHARPLY TO THE RIGHT, AND THE LEFT FLOAT STRUT SUBSEQUENTLY COLLAPSED, ALLOWING THE LEFT WING TO STRIKE THE WATER.
Probable cause
THE PILOT'S SELECTION OF AN UNSUITABLE LANDING AREA. FACTORS ASSOCIATED WITH THE ACCIDENT WERE THE SUN GLARE, THE PARTIALLY SUBMERGED LOG, AND THE SHALLOW FOG LAYER ON THE SURFACE OF THE WATER (LANDING SURFACE).
Verbatim NTSB analysis and probable cause from the NTSB dataset
Sources
NTSB record ANC95LA023
- Event ID
- 20001207X02806
- Case number
- ANC95LA023
- Dataset
- historical-pre2008
- Source SHA-256
- 89e2df6d848e7ab3b42e7d7c7a03ff403303057a26ca04c95b3ea67201c3ce74
Source notes (5)
- 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: f45042eeb66e3100353eeac937e1620bba265a2d6a7887fc43bc6ec0764d8414; retrieved 2026-09-18T18:04:42.713Z.
- The NTSB's operator name is blank for N242SS; the operator shown is the name the NTSB's other records give its FAA operator code, FYWA.