ANC95LA158 · Short Brothers SC-7
North Star Air Cargo Short Brothers SC-7 · Accident: in flight collision with terrain/water while maneuvering
From Farewell Airport (FWL) to Merrill Field (MRI)
Narrative check · The NTSB narrative appears to contradict this record's departure or destination. Values are shown as recorded, not corrected; compare with the narrative.
Event
- NTSB case
- ANC95LA158
- 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
- 1 · 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
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
- N30GA
- Operator
- North Star Air Cargo
- Onboard fatalities
- Unknown
- Route Possible conflict
- From Farewell Airport (FWL), FAREWELL, AKTo Merrill Field (MRI), 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
- 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
- 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
- Also codedOther events the NTSB coded in the sequence, such as a wire strike after a loss of power. Flight Findings uses them for its kinds of event. Glossary
- Visual flight rules (VFR) flight into instrument meteorological conditions (IMC)
- 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 › VFR flight into imc, continued
Approximate · Coordinates as recorded by the NTSB; no uncertainty radius is established.
NTSB narrative
THE PILOT HAD DEPARTED A REMOTE AIRSTRIP ON THE RETURN PORTION OF A CARGO FLIGHT. AN INSTRUMENT FLIGHT PLAN WAS ON FILE WITH THE ARTCC. AFTER DEPARTURE, THE PILOT ATTEMPTED TO CONTACT ARTCC TO OPEN HIS FLIGHT PLAN BUT COMMUNICATIONS WERE NOT ESTABLISHED. THE AIRPLANE STRUCK MOUNTAINOUS TERRAIN ABOUT 6 MILES SOUTH OF THE DEPARTURE AIRPORT. RADAR DATA SHOWED THAT AFTER DEPARTURE, THE AIRPLANE CLIMBED WESTBOUND AND THEN TURNED SOUTHBOUND TOWARD HIGHER TERRAIN. IT CIRCLED SOUTHWEST OF THE AIRPORT AND TURNED EASTBOUND WHILE CLIMBING TO 5,300 FT MSL. THE AIRPLANE THEN TURNED SOUTHBOUND AGAIN TOWARD THE ACCIDENT SITE. THE LAST RECORDED RADAR DATA WAS AT 5,200 FT MSL. THE AIRPLANE STRUCK A RIDGELINE ABOUT 4,800 FT MSL. AIRMETS WERE IN EFFECT FOR IFR CONDITIONS, LOW CEILINGS, MOUNTAIN OBSCURATIONS, RAIN, FOG, AND ICING IN CLOUDS AND IN PRECIPITATION. A WITNESS REPORTED THAT WHEN THE AIRPLANE ARRIVED AT THE AIRPORT, THE AIRFRAME HAD A COATING OF ICE. WHEN THE AIRPLANE DEPARTED, SNOW WAS FALLING AT THE AIRPORT.
Probable cause
THE PILOT'S CONTINUED VFR FLIGHT INTO INSTRUMENT METEOROLOGICAL CONDITIONS. THE WEATHER WAS A FACTOR.
Verbatim NTSB analysis and probable cause from the NTSB dataset
Sources
NTSB record ANC95LA158
- Event ID
- 20001207X04401
- Case number
- ANC95LA158
- 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: 437c9e97dd07d40ec212577a9a2e9a16303c53a975977985bd460e5294c336ad; retrieved 2026-09-20T23:38:53.691Z.