ANC90LA095 · Bell B-47G2A
Bell B-47G2A · Accident: in flight encounter with weather en route
From Cape Sarichef Airport (26AK) to an unrecorded destination
Event
- NTSB case
- ANC90LA095
- 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
- Instrument Meteorological Cond
Bell B-47G2A
- Aircraft type
- Bell B-47
- Category
- Helicopter
- 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
- N8495E
- Operator
- James Gilmore
- Onboard fatalities
- Unknown
- Route
- From Cape Sarichef Airport (26AK), COLD BAY, 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
- 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
- Also codedOther events the NTSB coded in the sequence, such as a wire strike after a loss of power. Flight Findings uses them for its kinds of event. Glossary
- Visual flight rules (VFR) flight into instrument meteorological conditions (IMC)
- DamageDestroyed: beyond practical repair. Substantial: damage that affects the structure, performance or handling and normally needs major repair. Minor: less than that. Glossary
- Destroyed
Cause areas
- Pilot in command › Altitude, not maintained
- Pilot in command › VFR flight into imc, continued
Approximate · Coordinates as recorded by the NTSB; no uncertainty radius is established.
NTSB narrative
THE PILOT-IN-COMMAND RECEIVED A WEATHER BRIEFING WHICH RECOMMENDED AGAINST VFR FLIGHT. HE DEPARTED FOR HIS DESTINATION AND ACTIVATED HIS FLIGHT PLAN. THE FLIGHT SERVICE STATION WITH WHICH HE ACTIVATED HIS FLIGHT PLAN CLOSED PRIOR TO N8495E REACHING ITS DESTINATION, BUT THE FLIGHT INFORMATION WAS PASSED ON TO KING SALMON FLIGHT SERVICE STATION. THE AIR TRAFFIC SPECIALIST AT KING SALMON FAILED TO 'SUSPENSE' THE FLIGHT INFORMATION ON N8495E. THIS RESULTED IN THE LACK OF ANY OVERDUE AIRCRAFT REPORT OR SEARCH AND RESCUE. MEANWHILE, N8495E WAS OPERATING IN THE VICINITY OF THE DUTCH HARBOR AIRPORT WHILE IN HEAVY FOG. THE PILOT-IN-COMMAND SAW A CLIFF APPEAR IN FRONT OF THE HELICOPTER AND HE VEERED AWAY AND ANOTHER CLIFF APPEAR AND AS HE VEERED AWAY AGAIN THE HELICOPTER STRUCK THE WATER AND SANK.
Probable cause
THE PILOT IN COMMANDS CONTINUED VFR FLIGHT INTO IMC CONDITIONS AND HIS FAILURE TO MAINTAIN ALTITUDE WHILE MANUEVERING TO AVOID TERRAIN.
Verbatim NTSB analysis and probable cause from the NTSB dataset
Sources
NTSB record ANC90LA095
- Event ID
- 20001212X23308
- Case number
- ANC90LA095
- 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 1990-06-24.
- API snapshot SHA-256: d8f9b87a3e8064b5f272b6d76925ed160bb3906a7ac1b4962ccdfc712537a198; retrieved 2026-09-23T05:48:48.811Z.