ANC95FA101 · Piper PA-32R-300
Piper PA-32R-300 · Accident: in flight collision with terrain/water while maneuvering
From Haines Airport (HNS) to an unrecorded destination
Event
- NTSB case
- ANC95FA101
- 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
- 6 · 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
Piper PA-32R-300
- Aircraft type
- Piper PA-32
- 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
- N6281J
- Operator
- Unknown
- Onboard fatalities
- Unknown
- Route
- From Haines Airport (HNS), AKTo not recorded
- 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
- Maneuvering
- 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
Approximate · Coordinates as recorded by the NTSB; no uncertainty radius is established.
NTSB narrative
AFTER DEPARTING ON AN AIR TOUR FLIGHT, THE PILOT CIRCLED ABOUT 700 FEET ABOVE GROUND LEVEL ALONG A SHORELINE TO OBSERVE A MOOSE. AT THE TIME, THE PILOT WAS IN RADIO COMMUNICATION WITH ANOTHER AIR TOUR PILOT WHO WAS ABOUT 1/2 MILE IN TRAIL. AFTER COMPLETING THE TURN ABOVE THE MOOSE, THE PILOT WAS OBSERVED BY THE IN-TRAIL PILOT TO BEGIN A DESCENT. THE ACCIDENT PILOT RADIOED TO THE IN-TRAIL PILOT THAT HE WANTED TO CIRCLE AROUND A BEAR AND HER CUBS ON THE SHORELINE. THE IN-TRAIL PILOT, AS WELL AS A GROUND WITNESS, OBSERVED THE ACCIDENT AIRPLANE INITIATE TURNS TOWARD RAPIDLY RISING TERRAIN, THEN LEVEL THE WINGS AND CLIMB IN A NOSE-HIGH ATTITUDE TOWARD THE RISING TERRAIN. THE AIRPLANE IMPACTED TREES ABOUT 500 FEET ABOVE THE SHORELINE. NO DISTRESS CALLS WERE REPORTED. EXAMINATION OF THE WRECKAGE DID NOT REVEAL ANY EVIDENCE OF A PREIMPACT MECHANICAL MALFUNCTION. AN ON-SHORE WIND OF ABOUT 10 KNOTS PREVAILED AT THE TIME. THE DIRECTOR OF FLIGHT OPERATIONS STATED THAT HE RECOMMENDS TO HIS PILOTS TO NOT CIRCLE GAME DURING FLIGHTSEEING FLIGHTS.
Probable cause
THE PILOT'S FAILURE TO MAINTAIN AN ADEQUATE ALTITUDE ABOVE AND CLEARANCE FROM THE SURROUNDING TERRAIN. A FACTOR RELATED TO THE ACCIDENT WAS THE PILOT'S IMPROPER DECISION TO CONDUCT THE MANEUVER IN SUCH CLOSE PROXIMITY TO THE RISING TERRAIN.
Verbatim NTSB analysis and probable cause from the NTSB dataset
Sources
NTSB record ANC95FA101
- Event ID
- 20001207X03828
- Case number
- ANC95FA101
- 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: ab4d20a9502758cfc53f43c62f0832fb140ad76d25d160ea2f94513b71e0ba22; retrieved 2026-09-18T13:41:59.656Z.