Katmai Air Cessna 206 accident
Cessna 206 and de Havilland DHC-2 · Accident: collision between aircraft (not in flight) during takeoff
Event
- NTSB case
- ANC00LA074
- 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
- Charter & commuter
- 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 · Cessna 206
- Aircraft type
- Cessna 206
- 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
- N495K
- Operator
- Katmai Air
- Onboard fatalities
- Unknown
- Route
- From not recordedTo King Salmon Airport (AKN), KING SALMON, 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 135: Air Taxi & Commuter
- 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
- Takeoff · roll/run
- 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
- Collision between aircraft (not in flight)
- 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 · de Havilland DHC-2
- 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
- N5221G
- Operator
- Thomas P. Prindiville · private individual
- Onboard fatalities
- Unknown
- Route
- From NAKNEK LAKE, 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
- Taxi · from runway
- 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
- Collision between aircraft (not in flight)
- DamageDestroyed: beyond practical repair. Substantial: damage that affects the structure, performance or handling and normally needs major repair. Minor: less than that. Glossary
- Minor
Cause areas
- Pilot in command › Traffic advisory, inadequate
- Pilot in command › Visual lookout, inadequate
- Pilot of other aircraft › Traffic advisory, inadequate
- Pilot of other aircraft › Visual lookout, inadequate
Approximate · Coordinates as recorded by the NTSB; no uncertainty radius is established.
NTSB narrative
According to an FAA inspector who interviewed both pilots, they related the float equipped Cessna was taxiing away from the shore, into the sun, and the float equipped DeHavilland was taxiing toward the shore after landing. The DeHavilland pilot believed that the Cessna pilot saw his airplane. The Cessna turned toward the DeHavilland, began the takeoff water run, and collided before either pilot could make an effective evasive maneuver. The Cessna pilot said he never saw the DeHavilland in the sun glare. As the Cessna was about to come on the step, the right-front seat passenger warned the Cessna pilot about the DeHavilland. The Cessna pilot attempted to maneuver the Cessna to the left, but the Cessna's right wing struck the DeHavilland's windshield. The radios of both airplanes were tuned to the local common traffic advisory frequency. The pilot of the DeHavilland made a radio transmission just before he landed, and none others. The pilot of the Cessna said he did not put on his headset until about halfway through the taxi for takeoff. Neither pilot reported hearing any radio transmissions from the pilot of the opposing airplane.
Probable cause
The Cessna pilot's inadequate visual lookout, and both pilots' inadequate radio traffic advisories. A factor associated with the accident was sunglare on the water.
Verbatim NTSB analysis and probable cause from the NTSB dataset
Sources
NTSB record ANC00LA074
- Event ID
- 20001212X21146
- Case number
- ANC00LA074
- 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: 7fa1d44a8b9fe974ab76d6904d4aa6b5e355e74049bc0e4d1632d68504fe628d; retrieved 2026-09-18T16:33:57.094Z.