ANC93LA091 · Aeronca AR11
Aeronca AR11 · Accident: loss of control on ground/water during landing
From Merrill Field (MRI) to Lake Hood Airport (Z41)
Event
- NTSB case
- ANC93LA091
- 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
Aeronca AR11
- Aircraft type
- Aeronca AR11
- 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
- N4000E
- Operator
- Smith, Billy J. JR · private individual
- Onboard fatalities
- Unknown
- Route
- From Merrill Field (MRI), MERRILL FIELD, AKTo Lake Hood Airport (Z41)
- 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
- Landing · landing roll
- 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 on ground/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
- Dual student › Directional control, not maintained
- Dual student › Ground loop/swerve, inadvertent
- Pilot in command(cfi) › Supervision, inadequate
Approximate · Coordinates as recorded by the NTSB; no uncertainty radius is established.
NTSB narrative
THE FLIGHT INSTRUCTOR WAS GIVING FLIGHT INSTRUCTION TO THE PRIVATE PILOT ON TAKEOFF AND FULL STALL LANDING TECHNIQUES IN CONVENTIONAL WHEEL AIRCRAFT. THE AIRPLANE TOUCHED DOWN TO THE LEFT OF THE IMAGINARY RUNWAY CENTERLINE. WHILE THE TAILWHEEL WAS STILL IN THE AIR, THE PRIVATE PILOT AND FLIGHT INSTRUCTOR BOTH APPLIED RIGHT RUDDER TO BRING THE AIRPLANE BACK TO THE CENTERLINE. THE AIRPLANE VEERED TO THE RIGHT CROSSING THE CENTERLINE. THE PRIVATE PILOT DEPRESSED HIS LEFT WHEEL BRAKE AND RUDDER PEDAL SIMULTANEOUSLY, BUT THE AIRPLANE DID NOT RESPOND. THE FLIGHT INSTRUCTOR SAID THAT HE ALSO DEPRESSED HIS LEFT RUDDER PEDAL. THE AIRPLANE WAS NOT EQUIPPED WITH WHEEL BRAKE CONTROLS AT THE FLIGHT INSTRUCTOR'S POSITION. IT PROCEEDED OFF THE RIGHT SIDE OF THE RUNWAY (OFF ABRUPT RUNWAY EDGE), ENCOUNTERED SOFT MUD, AND FLIPPED OVER. AN ON-SCENE EXAMINATION OF THE LANDING GEAR, WHEEL, AND BRAKE ASSEMBLY FOUND THEM TO BE IN PROPER WORKING ORDER.
Probable cause
FAILURE OF THE STUDENT PILOT TO MAINTAIN DIRECTIONAL CONTROL, WHICH RESULTED IN A GROUND SWERVE, AND INADEQUATE SUPERVISION BY THE FLIGHT INSTRUCTOR. A FACTOR RELATED TO THE ACCIDENT WAS: THE SOFT/WET (MUDDY) TERRAIN AT THE EDGE OF THE RUNWAY.
Verbatim NTSB analysis and probable cause from the NTSB dataset
Sources
NTSB record ANC93LA091
- Event ID
- 20001211X12506
- Case number
- ANC93LA091
- 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: local date, investigation status. Values present in the bulk record are kept.
- The date is the local date; the NTSB stores the UTC date 1993-06-16.
- API snapshot SHA-256: ff0820ebb280089633be271419b17caa1d3009b1ae0cc4bb57388c6a02e81164; retrieved 2026-09-23T01:58:01.570Z.