ANC95TA068 · Piper PA-18-160
Piper PA-18-160 · Accident: loss of control on ground/water during takeoff
From an unrecorded airport to Lake Hood Airport (Z41)
Event
- NTSB case
- ANC95TA068
- 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
- Government
- 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
Piper PA-18-160
- Aircraft type
- Piper PA-18
- 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
- N2400S
- Operator
- Unknown
- Onboard fatalities
- Unknown
- Route
- From not recordedTo Lake Hood Airport (Z41), Anchorage, 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
- Public Aircraft
- 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
- Takeoff · roll/run
- 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 › Unsuitable terrain or takeoff/landing/taxi area, selected
Approximate · Coordinates as recorded by the NTSB; no uncertainty radius is established.
NTSB narrative
THE ALASKA STATE TROOPER PILOT LANDED AT AN OFF AIRPORT SITE ADJACENT TO A RIVER TO APPREHEND AN APPARENT VIOLATOR OF THE STATE'S FISH AND GAME LAWS. THE LANDING SITE WAS COVERED WITH LONG GRASS AND POCKETS OF WATER. FOLLOWING THE ENFORCEMENT ACTION, THE PILOT ATTEMPTED TO TAKEOFF FROM THE APPROXIMATELY 1,200' LONG 'STRIP'. THE AIRPLANE FAILED TO BECOME AIRBORNE PRIOR TO REACHING AN AREA OF TALLER GRASS AND DEEPER WATER, AND THE PILOT ELECTED TO ABORT THE TAKEOFF. THE AIRPLANE SUBSEQUENTLY GROUND-LOOPED AND NOSED DOWN. NO PRETAKEOFF MECHANICAL ANOMALIES WERE CLAIMED OR DISCOVERED.
Probable cause
THE PILOT'S SELECTION OF UNSUITABLE TERRAIN FOR LANDING/TAKEOFF. FACTORS ASSOCIATED WITH THE ACCIDENT ARE THE LONG AND WET GRASS COVERING THE UNIMPROVED TAKEOFF AREA.
Verbatim NTSB analysis and probable cause from the NTSB dataset
Sources
NTSB record ANC95TA068
- Event ID
- 20001207X03602
- Case number
- ANC95TA068
- 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: a51c93fdc09a5e11254362ca6457209ab6ea0afb2723d857b9068b48592fa421; retrieved 2026-09-18T21:22:19.381Z.