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ANC92LA077 · de Havilland DHC-2-T

23 May 1992 · ALEXANDER CREEK, AK, United States Narrative disagrees

de Havilland DHC-2-T · Accident: total loss of engine power (non-mechanical) en route

From Ted Stevens Anchorage International Airport (ANC) to Dillingham Airport (DLG)

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Narrative check · The NTSB narrative appears to contradict this record's location. Values are shown as recorded, not corrected; compare with the narrative.

Event

NTSB case
ANC92LA077
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

de Havilland DHC-2-T

Aircraft type
de Havilland DHC-2
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
N4478
Operator
Bryan Bergt
Onboard fatalities
Unknown
Route
From Ted Stevens Anchorage International Airport (ANC), Anchorage, AKTo Dillingham Airport (DLG), Dillingham, 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
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
Total loss of engine power (non-mechanical)
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 › Fuel supply, inadvertent deactivation

Not plotted · Location withheld: coordinates are missing, conflicting, invalid, or have no accepted acquisition method. No substitute location has been invented.

NTSB narrative

THE PILOT STATED HE WANTED TO TURN ON THE CABIN HEAT SO HE REACHED DOWN AND PULLED A HANDLE WITHOUT LOOKING AT WHICH HANDLE HE WAS PULLING. HE INADVERTENTLY SHUT OFF THE FUEL SHUT OFF. THE CABIN HEAT HANDLE AND THE EMERGENCY FUEL SHUT OFF ARE LOCATED ON THE CENTER PEDESTAL, BEHIND THE VERTICAL COLUMN OF THE CONTROL YOKE, ABOUT 8 INCHES APART. EACH HAS A DIFFERENT SHAPED HANDLE AND EACH IS PLACARDED WITH A DIFFERENT COLORED PLACARD. THE FUEL SHUT OFF WAS SAFETY WIRED TO THE ON POSITION. THE AIRPLANE WAS EQUIPPED WITH AMPHIBIOUS FLOATS. THE TIDE IN COOK INLET WAS RECEDING AND THE PILOT ELECTED TO LAND ON THE MUD FLATS. THE FLOAT BRACES COLLAPSED UPON LANDING.

Probable cause

THE PILOT'S INADVERTENT DEACTIVATION OF THE ENGINE'S FUEL SUPPLY BY SWITCHING OFF THE FUEL SHUT OFF. FACTOR RELATED TO THE ACCIDENT WAS THE SOFT MUD IN THE FORCED LANDING AREA.

Verbatim NTSB analysis and probable cause from the NTSB dataset

Sources

NTSB record ANC92LA077
Event ID
20001211X14548
Case number
ANC92LA077
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 1992-05-24.
  • API snapshot SHA-256: 01105c97cdaf222862d750c28accbadfb7179899306555ee582e6ab8a428daf1; retrieved 2026-09-23T03:07:34.868Z.