ANC95LA033 · Champion 8GCBC
Champion 8GCBC · Accident: in flight collision with object during initial climb
From an unrecorded airport to Fairbanks International Airport (FAI)
Event
- NTSB case
- ANC95LA033
- 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
- General aviation
- 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
Champion 8GCBC
- Aircraft type
- Champion 8
- 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
- N88297
- Operator
- Unknown
- Onboard fatalities
- Unknown
- Route
- From not recordedTo Fairbanks International Airport (FAI), 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
- Part 91: General Aviation
- 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
- Initial climb
- 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 object
- Also codedOther events the NTSB coded in the sequence, such as a wire strike after a loss of power. Flight Findings uses them for its kinds of event. Glossary
- Tree(s)
- 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 › Preflight planning/preparation, inadequate
Approximate · Estimated position: the centre of Fairbanks, AK, the place the record names. Not the accident site.
NTSB narrative
THE PILOT WAS DEPARTING A REMOTE OFF-AIRPORT LANDING AREA IN A SKI EQUIPPED AIRPLANE ON A PERSONAL CROSS-COUNTRY FLIGHT AT THE CONCLUSION OF A HUNTING TRIP. UTILIZING SNOW SHOES AND THE AIRCRAFT SKIS, THE PILOT PACKED THE SNOW IN THE TAKEOFF AREA. ADDITIONALLY, HE CUT SEVERAL TREES ABOUT 800 TO 1,000 FEET FROM THE DEPARTURE POINT TO CLEAR A DEPARTURE PATH. DURING THE TAKE- OFF RUN, THE RIGHT SKI DUG INTO SOFT SNOW, SLOWING THE AIRPLANE AND EXTENDING THE TAKEOFF RUN. AFTER LIFT-OFF, THE AIRCRAFT WAS UNABLE TO CLIMB ABOVE ADDITIONAL TREES AT THE END OF THE DEPARTURE AREA.
Probable cause
THE PILOT'S INADEQUATE PRE-FLIGHT PLANNING. A SHORT TAKEOFF AREA THAT WAS COVERED WITH SOFT SNOW WERE FACTORS IN THE ACCIDENT.
Verbatim NTSB analysis and probable cause from the NTSB dataset
Sources
NTSB record ANC95LA033
- Event ID
- 20001207X03050
- Case number
- ANC95LA033
- 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: 935c830f17cb3e4a0d5840b3bffffd19339409ec0924198dc57d75d8f545e573; retrieved 2026-09-23T00:10:51.348Z.