ANC88LA041 · Cessna 177
Cessna 177 · Accident: on ground/water collision with object during takeoff
From an unrecorded airport to Fairbanks International Airport (FAI)
Event
- NTSB case
- ANC88LA041
- 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 177
- Aircraft type
- Cessna 177
- 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
- N34603
- Operator
- Howard, Robert R. · private individual
- Onboard fatalities
- Unknown
- Route
- From not recordedTo Fairbanks International Airport (FAI), Fairbanks, 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
- 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
- On ground/water 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 › Directional control, not maintained
- Pilot in command › Operation with known deficiencies in equipment, intentional
Approximate · Coordinates as recorded by the NTSB; no uncertainty radius is established.
NTSB narrative
THE PRIVATE PILOT ATTEMPTED TO TAKE-OFF AT DUSK WITH A LEFT MAIN GEAR WHEEL BRAKE THAT WAS FROZEN IN THE 'ON' POSITION. HE HAD UNSUCCESSFULLY ATTEMPTED TO FREE THE BRAKE PRIOR TO TAKE0FF, BUT FELT THAT HE COULD GET THE AIRPLANE AIRBORNE BY SKIDDING THE TIRE ALONG THE TOP OF THE SNOW AND ICE COVERED RUNWAY. HE SUBSEQUENTLY WAS UNABLE TO MAINTAIN DIRECTIONAL CONTROL DURING THE TAKE-OFF ROLL AND STRUCK A RUNWAY EDGE LIGHT WITH THE AIRPLANE'S STABILATOR. HE COMPLETED THE FLIGHT UNEVENTFULLY, AND DID NOT DISCOVER THE DAMAGE TO THE STABILATOR UNTIL AFTER HE LANDED. THE PILOT STATED THAT HE SHOULD NOT HAVE ATTEMPTED TO TAKE-OFF WITH THE BRAKE FROZEN, AND THAT HE POSSIBLY COULD HAVE AVOIDED THE RUNWAY LIGHT IF IT HAD BEEN LIGHTED, BUT IT WAS ACTIVATED ON COMMAND VIA THE AIRPLANE'S RADIO, AND HE DID NOT KNOW WHICH FREQUENCY TO USE.
Verbatim NTSB analysis from the NTSB dataset
Sources
NTSB record ANC88LA041
- Event ID
- 20001213X25184
- Case number
- ANC88LA041
- 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: 0895928e0c18333c6f7742aaf3eef2419cbfa8434262e5c7ee944cc1545b9678; retrieved 2026-09-23T10:48:09.880Z.