ANC96LA093 · Cessna 206
Cessna 206 and Cessna 180 · Accident: midair collision during initial climb
Event
- NTSB case
- ANC96LA093
- 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
- General aviation
- 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
Aircraft 1 · Cessna 206
- Aircraft type
- Cessna 206
- 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
- N5244Z
- Operator
- Unknown
- Onboard fatalities
- Unknown
- Route
- From LHDTo Big Lake Airport (BGQ), Big Lake, 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
- 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
- Midair collision
- DamageDestroyed: beyond practical repair. Substantial: damage that affects the structure, performance or handling and normally needs major repair. Minor: less than that. Glossary
- Substantial
Aircraft 2 · Cessna 180
- Aircraft type
- Cessna 180
- 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
- N5020E
- Operator
- Unknown
- Onboard fatalities
- Unknown
- Route
- From LHDTo LOST LAKE, 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
- 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
- Midair collision
- 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 › Atc clearance, disregarded
- Pilot of other aircraft › Atc clearance, disregarded
Approximate · Coordinates as recorded by the NTSB; no uncertainty radius is established.
NTSB narrative
The pilot of the Cessna 206, N5244Z, had reported to the local controller that he was entering Lake Hood at the public ramp and was water taxiing foe a southeast departure on the lake. Approximately one minute later the pilot of the Cessna 180, N5020E, reported to the local controller that he was at the east shore of Lake Spenard requesting a west departure. The pilot of the C-180 was advised to 'hold short of the west, advise ready.' The pilot of the C-206 was cleared for takeoff, and the pilot of the C-180 was again advised to hold short; however the C-180 pilot did not acknowledge the radio transmission. The C-206 departed and began a climb over the canal separating the two lakes that comprise the seaplane base. The C-180 departed in a westbound direction. The airplanes collided about 100 feet above the canal. The right horizontal stabilizer and elevator of the C-206 was struck by the right wing of the C-180. The C-206 returned and landed safely. The pilot of the C-180 continued his departure and returned to the seaplane base the next day.
Probable cause
The pilot of the Cessna 180, N5020E, disregard of an air traffic control clearance/instruction to hold short. A factor in the accident was the failure of both pilots to maintain an adequate visual lookout for other aircraft.
Verbatim NTSB analysis and probable cause from the NTSB dataset
Sources
NTSB record ANC96LA093
- Event ID
- 20001208X05897
- Case number
- ANC96LA093
- 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: 82d1e15d45478345cac8c203e03ed8fde5d57af436c7dd47aafec406ff7e449e; retrieved 2026-09-22T22:05:08.392Z.