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MarkAir Express Flight 1216

3 Nov 1995 · Toksook Bay, AK, United States

Cessna 207 · Accident: in flight collision with terrain/water during initial climb

From Toksook Bay Airport (OOK) to Bethel Airport (BET)

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Event

NTSB case
ANC96LA012
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

Cessna 207

Aircraft type
Cessna 207
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
N88BC
Onboard fatalities
Unknown
Route
From Toksook Bay Airport (OOK)To Bethel Airport (BET), Bethel, 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
Initial climb
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
Substantial

Cause areas

  • Pilot in command › Flaps, improper use of
  • Pilot in command › Ice/frost removal from aircraft, inadequate
  • Pilot in command › Planning/decision, inadequate

Approximate · Coordinates as recorded by the NTSB; no uncertainty radius is established.

NTSB narrative

The certificated commercial pilot and six passengers were departing a remote airstrip on a scheduled commuter flight. Snow showers were present in the area. The pilot loaded the passengers and waited on the ground for conditions to improve. Prior to departure, the pilot removed snow from the windshield and the leading edge of the wing. After a ground time of about 40 minutes, the pilot began a takeoff on a runway that sloped uphill about 2 percent. The airplane did not become airborne until the pilot added full flaps. The airplane lifted off but could not climb out of ground effect. A small hill was ahead of the pilot and she began to retract the flaps. The airplane collided with rising terrain about 1/4 mile north of the departure end of the runway. A pilot/witness indicated that after the accident, he walked to the accident site and observed snow on the upper surface of the wings.

Probable cause

The pilot's inadequate planning/decision, improper use of the flaps, and inadequate removal of snow/frost from the wings of the airplane. An upsloping runway and snow conditions were factors in the accident.

Verbatim NTSB analysis and probable cause from the NTSB dataset

Sources

NTSB record ANC96LA012
Event ID
20001207X04796
Case number
ANC96LA012
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: 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: 34722807cf3b74f384b1b0f4664f3948d959aab0f55d021fa182e6f18b379f4d; retrieved 2026-09-18T17:56:40.143Z.
  • The NTSB's operator name is blank for N88BC; the operator shown is the name the NTSB's other records give its FAA operator code, HERA.