Mark Air Boeing 737-200 incident
Boeing 737-200 and de Havilland DHC-8 · Incident: near collision between aircraft on approach
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
- ANC93IA007
- 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
- Incident
- 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
- Airline
- 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 · Boeing 737-200
- Aircraft type
- Boeing 737
- 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
- N673MA
- Operator
- Mark Air
- Onboard fatalities
- Unknown
- Route
- From King Salmon Airport (AKN), KING SALMON, AKTo Elmendorf Air Force Base (EDF), ELMENDORF AFB, 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 121: Air Carrier
- 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
- Approach · IFR initial approach
- 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
- Near collision between aircraft
- DamageDestroyed: beyond practical repair. Substantial: damage that affects the structure, performance or handling and normally needs major repair. Minor: less than that. Glossary
- None
Aircraft 2 · de Havilland DHC-8
- Aircraft type
- de Havilland DHC-8
- 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
- N680MA
- Operator
- Mark Air
- Onboard fatalities
- Unknown
- Route
- From Kodiak Airport (ADQ), Kodiak, 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 121: Air Carrier
- 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
- Approach · VFR pattern downwind
- 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
- Near collision between aircraft
- DamageDestroyed: beyond practical repair. Substantial: damage that affects the structure, performance or handling and normally needs major repair. Minor: less than that. Glossary
- None
Cause areas
- Atc personnel(dep/apch) › Atc clearance, improper
Approximate · Estimated position: the centre of Anchorage, AK, the place the record names. Not the accident site.
NTSB narrative
THE DHC-8, N680MA, WAS NORTH BOUND IN RADAR CONTROL APRX 8 NM FROM ANC INTL ARPT, AND WAS PROVIDED VISUAL SEPARATION FROM THE B-737, N673MA, NE BOUND ON APCH TO ELMENDORF AFB. THE B-737 WAS IN CLOUDS AT THE TIME OF THE ADVISORY, AND THE DHC-8 MISTOOK ANOTHER B-737 FOR VISUAL SEPARATION. THE TCAS ALERTED THE FIRST B-737 PILOT OF CLOSE PROXIMITY OF TRAFFIC APPROACHING AT AT HIS 2 O'CLOCK POSITION, AND HE INITIATED A CLIMB IN IMC. A RAPID DESCENT WAS INITIATED BY THE DHC-8 PILOT AFTER SEEING THE B-737 EMERGING FROM THE CLOUDS. THESE EVASIVE ACTIONS OCCURRED APPROXIMATELY 20 SECS PRIOR TO THE CROSSING OF THE TRACKS OF THE TWO AIRPLANES. ATC CONTROL OF THE CONFLICTING AIRPLANES WAS BY THE SAME POSITION CONTROLLER ON SEPARATE FREQUENCIES. THE B-737 PILOT WAS NOT ADVISED NOR AWARE OF THE DHC-8 BEING PROVIDING VISUAL SEPARATION FROM HIS AIRPLANE PER FAA ORDER 7110.65G UNTIL THE TCAS PULL-UP AND VISUAL SIGHTING OF THE TRAFFIC PASSING UNDER AND IN FRONT.
Probable cause
IMPROPER ATC CLEARANCE INSTRUCTIONS BY THE APPROACH CONTROLLER, RESULTING IN A FAILURE TO INSURE SAFE SEPARATION BETWEEN AN AIRPLANE IN VISUAL CONDITIONS WITH AN AIRPLANE IN INSTRUMENT METEOROLOGICAL CONDITIONS ON CONVERGING COURSES. A FACTOR WHICH CONTRIBUTED WAS INSUFFICIENT INFORMATION PROVIDED TO BOTH PILOTS BY THE CONTROLLER.
Verbatim NTSB analysis and probable cause from the NTSB dataset
Sources
NTSB record ANC93IA007
- Event ID
- 20001211X15793
- Case number
- ANC93IA007
- 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, damage. 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: 213c44c57a614b57b4b245430a3e3ad53a3d12f4fe0ab0bd8d675e37fe631f70; retrieved 2026-09-18T18:43:31.598Z.