ANC95LA141 · Short Brothers SC.7
Short Brothers SC.7 · Accident: hazardous materials leak/spill en route
From Ted Stevens Anchorage International Airport (ANC) to an unrecorded destination
Event
- NTSB case
- ANC95LA141
- 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
Short Brothers SC.7
- Aircraft type
- Short Brothers SC-7
- 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
- N504FS
- Operator
- Unknown
- Onboard fatalities
- Unknown
- Route
- From Ted Stevens Anchorage International Airport (ANC), Anchorage, 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
- 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
- Hazardous materials leak/spill
- 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
- Electrical system, electric wiring › Arcing
- Fuselage › Fire
Approximate · Coordinates as recorded by the NTSB; no uncertainty radius is established.
NTSB narrative
THE PILOT WAS DELIVERING A LOAD OF CARGO THAT INCLUDED BARRELS OF 100LL OCTANE AVIATION FUEL TO A REMOTE AIRSTRIP. THE PILOT REPORTED FIRE AND SMOKE IN THE CARGO COMPARTMENT. HE BEGAN AN IMMEDIATE DESCENT AND LANDED AT THE DESTINATION AIRSTRIP. AFTER LANDING, THE PILOT NOTICED THAT FUEL WAS LEAKING FROM ONE OF THE BARRELS. THE FIRE WAS LOCATED BETWEEN THE CARGO AREA FLOORING AND THE BOTTOM BELLY OF THE AIRPLANE. THERE WAS FIRE AND HEAT DAMAGE TO THE CARGO BAY AND MELTING OF THE AIRFRAME ASSEMBLY, INCORPORATING THE REAR SPAR AND SEVERAL AIRFRAME STATIONS. AN AREA OF SOOTING AND A CHARRED SECTION OF ELECTRICAL WIRING WAS FOUND BELOW THE FLOORING, ADJACENT TO THE MOUNTING POSITION OF A LOWER FUSELAGE BEACON THAT HAD BEEN REMOVED SOMETIME IN THE PAST. THE CIRCUIT BREAKER PROTECTING THE ELECTRICAL LOADS FOR THE AIRPLANE'S ROTATING BEACONS WAS FOUND POPPED. APPLICATION OF ELECTRICAL POWER TO THE ROTATING BEACON CIRCUIT RESULTED IN PROPER FUNCTIONING OF THE UPPER FUSELAGE BEACON AND THE PRESENCE OF ELECTRICAL POWER TO THE CHARRED WIRING.
Probable cause
IGNITION OF HAZARDOUS CARGO (AVIATION FUEL) BY AN EXPOSED ELECTRICAL WIRE, AFTER LEAKING FROM A CONTAINER OF FUEL THAT WAS BEING TRANSPORTED ON THE FLIGHT. FACTORS RELATING TO THE ACCIDENT WERE: INADEQUATE INSPECTION OF THE AIRPLANE BY COMPANY MAINTENANCE PERSONNEL, AND FAILURE OF COMPANY PERSONNEL TO IDENTIFY THE LEAKING FUEL CONTAINER.
Verbatim NTSB analysis and probable cause from the NTSB dataset
Sources
NTSB record ANC95LA141
- Event ID
- 20001207X04135
- Case number
- ANC95LA141
- 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: e896a9bf76b0a32a99dca95596f366391f66a253f03e464202827aec669247d7; retrieved 2026-09-18T17:58:20.877Z.