PenAir Grumman G-44 accident
Grumman G-44 · Accident: airframe, component or system failure during takeoff
From Kodiak Airport (ADQ) to DANGER BAY, AK
Event
- NTSB case
- ANC95LA122
- 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
- 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
Grumman G-44
- Aircraft type
- Grumman G-44
- 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
- N17481
- Operator
- PenAir
- Onboard fatalities
- Unknown
- Route
- From Kodiak Airport (ADQ)To DANGER BAY, 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 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
- 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
- Airframe, component or system failure
- 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
- Landing gear, wheel › Fractured
Approximate · Coordinates as recorded by the NTSB; no uncertainty radius is established.
NTSB narrative
THE CERTIFICATED COMMERCIAL PILOT AND A PASSENGER WERE DEPARTING A HARD SURFACED RUNWAY IN AN AMPHIBIOUS AIRPLANE FOR AN ON-DEMAND CHARTER FLIGHT. DURING THE TAKEOFF ROLL, THE AIRPLANE LURCHED TO THE RIGHT. THE PILOT APPLIED THE LEFT BRAKE TO MAINTAIN DIRECTIONAL CONTROL OF THE AIRPLANE WITHOUT ANY RESPONSE. HE ABORTED THE TAKEOFF, BUT WAS UNABLE TO PREVENT THE AIRPLANE FROM GROUND LOOPING TO THE RIGHT. INSPECTION OF THE AIRPLANE REVEALED THAT THE LEFT WHEEL RIM WAS BROKEN NEAR THE HUB BOLT HOLES. A METALLURGICAL EXAMINATION OF THE WHEEL DID NOT REVEAL ANY EVIDENCE OF FATIGUE. ALL FRACTURE SURFACES EXHIBITED EVIDENCE OF OVERLOAD.
Probable cause
OVERLOAD FAILURE OF THE MAIN LANDING GEAR WHEEL.
Verbatim NTSB analysis and probable cause from the NTSB dataset
Sources
NTSB record ANC95LA122
- Event ID
- 20001207X03851
- Case number
- ANC95LA122
- Dataset
- historical-pre2008
- Source SHA-256
- 89e2df6d848e7ab3b42e7d7c7a03ff403303057a26ca04c95b3ea67201c3ce74
Source notes (5)
- 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: local date, investigation status. Values present in the bulk record are kept.
- The date is the local date; the NTSB stores the UTC date 1995-08-01.
- API snapshot SHA-256: 187ed07f70a8ba9916f536ecc3ba99fde5bcba7067061c948518dc38dae38e55; retrieved 2026-09-18T17:58:41.874Z.
- The NTSB's operator name is blank for N17481; the operator shown is the name the NTSB records it doing business as.