ANC95FA086 · Piper PA-31
Piper PA-31 · Accident: in flight collision with terrain/water on approach
From Homer Airport (HOM) to Valdez Pioneer Field (VDZ)
Event
- NTSB case
- ANC95FA086
- 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
- 4 · 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
- Instrument Meteorological Cond
Piper PA-31
- Aircraft type
- Piper PA-31
- 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
- N62851
- Operator
- Unknown
- Onboard fatalities
- Unknown
- Route
- From Homer Airport (HOM), Homer, AKTo Valdez Pioneer Field (VDZ)
- 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
- Approach · IFR missed approach
- 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
- Destroyed
Cause areas
- Pilot in command › Altitude/clearance, not maintained
- Pilot in command › IFR procedure, not followed
Approximate · Coordinates as recorded by the NTSB; no uncertainty radius is established.
NTSB narrative
THE PILOT RECEIVED AN INSTRUMENT APPROACH CLEARANCE TO A NONTOWER AIRPORT SURROUNDED BY MOUNTAINOUS TERRAIN. WEATHER CONDITIONS ON THE GROUND WERE VFR, AND THE PILOT DESCENDED THROUGH AN OVERCAST. THE APPROACH ENVIRONMENT WAS NOT SERVICED BY ANY ATC RADAR FACILITY. THE PILOT DECLARED A MISSED APPROACH TO THE APPROPRIATE FAA FLIGHT SERVICE STATION, AND WAS ADVISED TO CONTACT ARTCC. ARTCC NEVER RECEIVED A RADIO TRANSMISSION FROM THE PILOT. THE AIRPLANE WRECKAGE WAS LOCATED APPROXIMATELY 6 MILES BEYOND THE AIRPORT, SLIGHTLY TO THE NORTH OF THE EXTENDED RUNWAY CENTERLINE. MISSED APPROACH PROCEDURES WERE FOR AN IMMEDIATE CLIMB, AND THEN A CLIMBING RIGHT TURN TO REVERSE DIRECTION AWAY FROM THE AIRPORT. THE MISSED APPROACH SEGMENT BEGAN 5.2 DME MILES PRIOR TO THE AIRPORT. MINIMUM DESCENT ALTITUDE (MDA) FOR THE APPROACH WAS 4320' MSL (4200' ABOVE THE RUNWAY ELEVATION); IMPACT WITH MOUNTAINOUS TERRAIN OCCURRED AT ABOUT THE SAME ALTITUDE.
Probable cause
THE PILOT'S FAILURE TO FOLLOW THE PUBLISHED IFR (MISSED APPROACH) PROCEDURE AND ASSURE ADEQUATE ALTITUDE/CLEARANCE FROM MOUNTAINOUS TERRAIN.
Verbatim NTSB analysis and probable cause from the NTSB dataset
Sources
NTSB record ANC95FA086
- Event ID
- 20001207X03575
- Case number
- ANC95FA086
- 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: 06107688ef085cd8d901039860779edafa24944ebb0898c1cd23d39e347ee9c0; retrieved 2026-09-20T23:43:38.520Z.