ANC95LA046 · Douglas C54GDC
Douglas C54GDC · Accident: on ground/water collision with terrain/water during landing
From Edward G. Pitka Sr Airport (GAL) to Kivalina Airport (KVL)
Event
- NTSB case
- ANC95LA046
- 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
Douglas C54GDC
- Aircraft type
- Douglas C54
- 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
- N898AL
- Operator
- Unknown
- Onboard fatalities
- Unknown
- Route
- From Edward G. Pitka Sr Airport (GAL), GALENA, AKTo Kivalina Airport (KVL)
- 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
- 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
- On ground/water 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 › Unsuitable terrain or takeoff/landing/taxi area, not identified
Approximate · Coordinates as recorded by the NTSB; no uncertainty radius is established.
NTSB narrative
THE FOUR ENGINE TRANSPORT CATEGORY AIRPLANE WAS CARRYING A LOAD OF FUEL OIL FOR DISTRIBUTION TO THE VILLAGE OF KIVALINA. THE PILOT REPORTED HE FLEW OVER THE 3,000' LONG BY 60' WIDE STRIP PRIOR TO LANDING, AND NOTED IN THE CENTER OF THE RUNWAY SOME GRAVEL WAS VISIBLE THROUGH A LAYER OF SURROUNDING SNOW. HE SAID HE COULD NOT SEE ANY SNOW BANKS OR DEEPER SNOW IN THE LANDING AREA, AND AVAILABLE NOTICES TO AIRMEN DID NOT MENTION ANY SNOW BANKS OR SNOW BERMS ON THE RUNWAY. THE PILOT SAID THE AIRPLANE LANDED NEAR THE THRESHOLD AND ON THE CENTER LINE, BUT, THE LEFT MAIN LANDING GEAR SOON ENCOUNTERED A SNOW BERM AND THE AIRPLANE WAS PULLED TO THE LEFT. THE AIRPLANE SUBSEQUENTLY IMPACTED OTHER SNOW BERMS ON THE LEFT SIDE OF THE RUNWAY AND THE NOSE LANDING GEAR COLLAPSED. THE U.S. GOVERNMENT'S SUPPLEMENT FOR ALASKA AIRPORTS, FOR THE KIVALINA AIRPORT, STATES, IN PART: UNATTENDED. CAUTION: RWY CONDITION NOT MONITORED, RECOMMEND VISUAL INSPECTION PRIOR TO USING.
Probable cause
THE PILOT'S FAILURE TO IDENTIFY A HAZARDOUS LANDING AREA. FACTORS IN THE ACCIDENT ARE THE PRESENCE OF SNOW BANKS/BERMS ON THE RUNWAY, AND THE INADEQUATE SNOW REMOVAL BY AIRPORT PERSONNEL.
Verbatim NTSB analysis and probable cause from the NTSB dataset
Sources
NTSB record ANC95LA046
- Event ID
- 20001207X03209
- Case number
- ANC95LA046
- 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: 298a50fbdd8cdc78b34c57218cd0c2bbe8b75e09b3c9ef6e679dd5cd90844ba7; retrieved 2026-09-23T00:02:23.832Z.