Ryan Air Service Cessna 402C accident
Cessna 402C · Accident: loss of control in flight during initial climb
From Nome Airport (OME) to Savoonga Airport (SVA)
Event
- NTSB case
- ANC93FA034
- 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
- Instrument Meteorological Cond
Cessna 402C
- Aircraft type
- Cessna 402
- 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
- N4182G
- Operator
- Ryan Air Service
- Onboard fatalities
- Unknown
- Route
- From Nome Airport (OME)To Savoonga Airport (SVA), Savoonga, 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
- Loss of control in flight
- 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
- Stall/mush
- 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 › Ice/frost removal from aircraft, not performed
Approximate · Coordinates as recorded by the NTSB; no uncertainty radius is established.
NTSB narrative
THE AIRPLANE WAS REMOVED FROM A HANGER ABOUT ONE HOUR BEFORE DEPARTURE. DURING THE INTERIM PERIOD, THE AMBIENT TEMPERATURE WAS ABOUT 32 DEGREES FAHRENHEIT AND IT WAS SNOWING LIGHTLY. NO DEICING FLUID WAS USED ON THE AIRPLANE. THE PILOT REPORTED OBSERVING ONLY WATER ON THE PLANE'S WINGS. THE PASSENGER (A RATED PILOT) REPORTED TO AN ALASKA STATE TROOPER THAT THE AIRPLANE HAD ACCUMULATED A LITTLE ICE BEFORE THE FLIGHT DEPARTED. THE AIRPLANE BECAME AIRBORNE ABOUT 1,000 FT FROM THE END OF THE 5,576 FT LONG RUNWAY. SHORTLY AFTER ROTATION, THE AIRPLANE BEGAN TO BUFFET AND WOULD NOT CLIMB. THE AIRPLANE IMPACTED IN A NEAR HORIZONTAL ATTITUDE ON LEVEL SNOW COVERED TUNDRA. THE PILOT REPORTED THAT IMMEDIATELY AFTER EXITING THE AIRPLANE, HE OBSERVED A COARSE LAYER OF ICE ON THE AFT TWO THIRDS OF THE WINGS. DURING THE TEST RUN OF BOTH ENGINES, NO PROBLEMS WERE NOTED THAT WOULD HAVE CAUSED AND/OR CONTRIBUTED TOWARD THE INABILITY OF THE AIRPLANE TO SUSTAIN FLIGHT.
Probable cause
THE PILOT IN COMMAND NOT REMOVING THE ICE FROM THE PLANE'S AIRFOIL SURFACES BEFORE TAKEOFF. THE WEATHER CONDITION WAS A FACTOR.
Verbatim NTSB analysis and probable cause from the NTSB dataset
Sources
NTSB record ANC93FA034
- Event ID
- 20001211X11766
- Case number
- ANC93FA034
- 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: ccfa2f0a39739035444980969b034b96113f94ef0df8cd1e21664eafd477bcb6; retrieved 2026-09-18T18:40:50.175Z.