ANC93FA114 · Piper PA-16
Piper PA-16 and Piper PA-18 · Accident: midair collision en route
Event
- NTSB case
- ANC93FA114
- 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
- 4 · 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 · Piper PA-16
- Aircraft type
- Piper PA-16
- 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
- N5960H
- Operator
- Sparks, Donald K · private individual
- Onboard fatalities
- Unknown
- Route
- From not recordedTo not recorded
- 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
- En route · cruise
- 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 · Piper PA-18
- Aircraft type
- Piper PA-18
- 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
- N87568
- Operator
- Stuhr, Ralph J. · private individual
- Onboard fatalities
- Unknown
- Route
- From North Pole, AKTo not recorded
- 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
- En route · cruise
- 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
- Destroyed
Cause areas
- Pilot in command › Impairment(alcohol)
- Pilot in command › Visual lookout, inadequate
- Pilot of other aircraft › Impairment(alcohol)
- Pilot of other aircraft › Visual lookout, inadequate
Approximate · Coordinates as recorded by the NTSB; no uncertainty radius is established.
NTSB narrative
THE PA-16, N5960H, HAD CONTACTED THE TOWER 5 MI EAST FOR LANDING, AND WAS CLEARED TO ENTER A RIGHT BASE. SHORTLY THEREAFTER, THE AIRPLANE CALLED & SAID HE WAS BEING PUSHED UP AND COLLIDED WITH ANOTHER AIRPLANE. IMPACT MARKS SHOWED THAT THE LEFT WING OF THE PA-18, N87568, HAD COLLIDED WITH THE RIGHT FLOAT OF THE PA-16. BOTH AIRPLANES WERE ON A WESTERLY HEADING. AT THE TIME OF THE COLLISION, THE SUN WAS 9.5 DEG ABOVE THE HORIZON AND ON A 303.7 DEG TRUE AZIMUTH. THE LEFT WING STRUTS OF BOTH AIRPLANES FAILED, AND BOTH AIRPLANES DESCENDED OUT OF CONTROL. THE TOXICOLOGICAL SAMPLE FROM THE PILOT-IN-COMMAND OF THE THE PA-16, N5960H, SHOWED A BLOOD ALCOHOL LEVEL OF 0.060 GM/DL, AND A URINE ALCOHOL LEVEL OF 0.046 GM/DL.
Probable cause
FAILURE OF THE PILOTS OF BOTH AIRPLANES TO SEE AND AVOID EACH OTHER, AND THE ALCOHOL IMPAIRMENT OF THE PILOT-IN-COMMAND OF THE PA-16, N5960H. A FACTOR WHICH CONTRIBUTED TO THE ACCIDENT WAS THE SUNGLARE.
Verbatim NTSB analysis and probable cause from the NTSB dataset
Sources
NTSB record ANC93FA114
- Event ID
- 20001211X12736
- Case number
- ANC93FA114
- 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 1993-07-09.
- API snapshot SHA-256: b9352a1c45bc5cc178a0e2ab482e565aa40c50330d9d98c5854e8966229f5a87; retrieved 2026-09-21T00:28:36.899Z.