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Inland Aviation Services Cessna 207 accident

13 Sept 1998 · SLEETMUTE, AK, United States

Cessna 207 · Accident: on ground/water collision with object during takeoff

From Taylor Mountain Airport (AK64) to Aniak Airport (PANI)

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Event

NTSB case
ANC98LA149
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
N1754U
Onboard fatalities
Unknown
Route
From Taylor Mountain Airport (AK64)To Aniak Airport (PANI), Aniak, 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
On ground/water collision with object
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 › Unsuitable terrain or takeoff/landing/taxi area, selected

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

NTSB narrative

The certificated commercial pilot, with the three passengers, was departing downhill from a remote private airstrip. The airstrip is 12 feet wide. The landing gear of the airplane is 10 feet wide. When the pilot rotated the airplane for takeoff, he heard a loud bang. After lift off, the pilot discovered the elevator was jammed in the up position. He lowered the flaps, and reduced engine power. The pilot was able to control the airplane's pitch attitude by holding full forward elevator pressure on the control yoke, and applying full nose down trim. The flight landed at the destination airport without further problems. After landing, an inspection of the airplane revealed a dent in the underside of the aft edge of the left stabilizer, and the leading edge of the elevator. The dent was in-line with the left landing gear tire.

Probable cause

The pilot's selection of unsuitable terrain for departure. A factor in the accident was a narrow runway.

Verbatim NTSB analysis and probable cause from the NTSB dataset

Sources

NTSB record ANC98LA149
Event ID
20001211X10981
Case number
ANC98LA149
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: 27560c28a1269208571ab3d70938c38b9476d30f75cc11c28176d8de561abfe3; retrieved 2026-09-18T17:04:57.303Z.