ANC91LA140 · Piper PA-18-150
Piper PA-18-150 · Accident: in flight collision with object on approach
From Bradley Sky-Ranch Airport (95Z) to JAP HILLS, AK
Event
- NTSB case
- ANC91LA140
- 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
Piper PA-18-150
- 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
- N2664A
- Operator
- Bruce V. Zmuda · private individual
- Onboard fatalities
- Unknown
- Route
- From Bradley Sky-Ranch Airport (95Z), North Pole, AKTo JAP HILLS, 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
- Approach · VFR go-around
- 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
- In flight collision with object
- 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 › Proper descent rate, not maintained
Approximate · Coordinates as recorded by the NTSB; no uncertainty radius is established.
NTSB narrative
THE PILOT STATED THAT AN AIRPLANE ON THE GROUND REPORTED THE WIND TO BE FROM THE NORTH AT 8 KNOTS. DURING THE FINAL APPROACH, THE AIRPLANE BEGAN TO SINK AT A HIGHER THAN DESIRED SINK RATE. THE PILOT APPLIED POWER, BUT THE AIRPLANE BOUNCED THREE TIMES. ON THE THIRD BOUNCE HE ADDED FULL POWER AND ATTEMPTED A GO AROUND INTO RISING TERRAIN. THE TAIL OF THE AIRPLANE STRUCK SOME BRUSH AND THEN THE LEFT WING STRUCK A TREE AND THE PILOT ABORTED THE GO AROUND. THEY WERE LANDING TO THE NORTH INTO RISING TERRAIN AND THE AIRPLANE'S ANGLE OF CLIMB WAS EQUAL TO THE ANGLE OF THE RISING TERRAIN. THE PILOT STATED THAT ONCE ON THE GROUND HE NOTICED THAT THE WIND WAS FROM THE SOUTH.
Probable cause
THE PILOT'S FAILURE TO MAINTAIN A PROPER DESCENT RATE. CONTRIBUTING TO THE ACCIDENT WAS THE RISING TERRAIN AND THE TAILWIND CONDITION.
Verbatim NTSB analysis and probable cause from the NTSB dataset
Sources
NTSB record ANC91LA140
- Event ID
- 20001212X17759
- Case number
- ANC91LA140
- 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: 9f6df7d824d43947f0c19c1e70d93e9f4f599c3403d7899ff44a38ab71b0178a; retrieved 2026-09-23T03:44:35.917Z.