ANC95LA119 · Cessna 421C
Cessna 421C · Accident: total loss of engine power (mechanical failure) en route
From Juneau International Airport (JNU) to King Salmon Airport (AKN)
Event
- NTSB case
- ANC95LA119
- 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
Cessna 421C
- Aircraft type
- Cessna 421
- 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
- N800DD
- Operator
- Unknown
- Onboard fatalities
- Unknown
- Route
- From Juneau International Airport (JNU), Juneau, AKTo King Salmon Airport (AKN), KING SALMON, 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
- En route · cruise
- 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
- Total loss of engine power (mechanical failure)
- 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
- Powerplant › Undetermined
Approximate · Coordinates as recorded by the NTSB; no uncertainty radius is established.
NTSB narrative
THE FLIGHT DEPARTED JUNEAU, ALASKA ON A VFR FLIGHT TO KING SALMON, ALASKA. WHEN THE FLIGHT WAS 50 MILES SOUTHWEST OF THE YAKUTAT VOR, THE PILOT REQUESTED AN IFR CLEARANCE. HE WAS CLEARED DIRECT TO MIDDLETON ISLAND VOR, THEN DIRECT TO KING SALMON VOR. WHEN THE FLIGHT WAS 20 MILES NORTHWEST OF MIDDLETON ISLAND, THE PILOT CONTACTED ARTCC AND INDICATED HIS RIGHT ENGINE HAD COME APART. THE PILOT ATTEMPTED TO FLY TO AND LAND AT MIDDLETON ISLAND, ALASKA. DURING THE FLIGHT, THE AIRPLANE CONSISTENTLY LOST ALTITUDE. HE FLEW PAST THE ISLAND AND WAS SOUTHEAST OF THE ISLAND, WHEN RADAR CONTACT WAS LOST. THE AIRPLANE WAS NOT RECOVERED. FLIGHT CREW OF RESCUE AIRCRAFT STATED THEY SAW BUBBLES, AN OIL SLICK, AND AIRPLANE DEBRIS IN THE OCEAN APPROXIMATELY 3 MILES SOUTH OF THE MIDDLETON ISLAND AIRPORT. THE 1126 ADT WEATHER AT THE AIRPORT WAS IN PART: 600' BROKEN, VISIBILITY 5 MILES, WIND FROM 117 DEG AT 17 GUSTING 25 KNOTS.
Probable cause
MECHANICAL LOSS OF ENGINE POWER FOR UNDETERMINED REASON(S), AND SUBSEQUENT IN-FLIGHT COLLISION WITH WATER (OR DITCHING AT SEA).
Verbatim NTSB analysis and probable cause from the NTSB dataset
Sources
NTSB record ANC95LA119
- Event ID
- 20001207X03848
- Case number
- ANC95LA119
- 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: 89778c1cfa062be3fb87cc336ef9951821c394ee71dcffe8479a5c02390aa1cf; retrieved 2026-09-20T23:41:08.620Z.