ANC91LA148 · Cessna 180
Cessna 180 · Accident: in flight encounter with weather en route
From Dahl Creek Airport (DCK) to McGrath Airport (MCG)
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
- ANC91LA148
- 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
Cessna 180
- Aircraft type
- Cessna 180
- 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
- N9640B
- Operator
- Patrick S. Twohy · private individual
- Onboard fatalities
- Unknown
- Route
- From Dahl Creek Airport (DCK), DAHL CREEK, AKTo McGrath Airport (MCG), MCGRATH, 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
- In flight encounter with weather
- 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
No findings designated as a cause are recorded in the NTSB data yet.
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 THAT BECAUSE OF STRONGER THAN ANTICIPATED ENROUTE WINDS, HE BECAME DISORIENTED. HE RADIOED THE FSS THAT HE WAS DISORIENTED AND LOW ON FUEL, AND REQUESTED ADF STEER TO AN AIRPORT. HE WAS MISTAKENLY GIVEN A HEADING THAT TOOK HIM FURTHER AWAY FROM HIS DESTINATION RATHER THAN TOWARDS IT. DESPITE NUMEROUS ATTEMPTS, THE FSS SPECIALIST WAS UNABLE TO CONTACT THE PILOT AGAIN TO CORRECT THE ERROR. ABOUT 43 MINUTES LATER, WITH HIS FUEL ALMOST EXHAUSTED, HE LANDED AT A SMALL AIRSTRIP ABOUT 70 MILES NORTHEAST OF HIS DESTINATION. DURING LANDING, HE EXPERIENCED AN ESTIMATED 35 KNOT CROSSWIND, LOST DIRECTIONAL CONTROL, AND GROUND LOOPED THE AIRPLANE.
Probable cause
THE PILOT GETTING DISORIENTED DURING FLIGHT DUE TO HIS INATTENTIVENESS, THE AIRPLANE'S LOW FUEL LEVEL, THE FSS SPECIALIST'S GIVING THE PILOT AN INCORRECT HEADING TO FLY, POOR RADIO COMMUNICATIONS BETWEEN THE FSS AND THE PILOT, THE STRONG CROSSWIND, AND THE AIRPLANE'S LANDING PERFORMANCE CAPABILITY BEING EXCEEDED.
Verbatim NTSB analysis and probable cause from the NTSB dataset
Sources
NTSB record ANC91LA148
- Event ID
- 20001212X18007
- Case number
- ANC91LA148
- 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: 5bbc51b3b45804e7cb694784724b017d4434ff2b80de1db2e7d398a7f1e8b292; retrieved 2026-09-23T03:41:38.726Z.