ANC88FA051 · Beech C55
Galena Air Service Beech C55 · Accident: in flight collision with terrain/water while maneuvering
From Edward G. Pitka Sr Airport (GAL) to Merrill Field (MRI)
Event
- NTSB case
- ANC88FA051
- 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
- 2 · 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
Beech C55
- Aircraft type
- Beechcraft 55
- 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
- N2730T
- Operator
- Galena Air Service
- Onboard fatalities
- Unknown
- Route
- From Edward G. Pitka Sr Airport (GAL), GALENA, AKTo Merrill Field (MRI), Anchorage, 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
- Maneuvering
- 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 terrain/water
- 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 › IFR procedure, improper
- Pilot in command › In-flight planning/decision, poor
Approximate · Coordinates as recorded by the NTSB; no uncertainty radius is established.
NTSB narrative
THE TWO PILOTS WERE OPERATING THE AIRCRAFT UNDER THE AUTHORITY OF A FERRY PERMIT WHICH ALLOWED FLT ONLY DURING DAY VFR CONDITIONS AND WITH A SINGLE PILOT. THEY REQUESTED AND RECEIVED JUST THE WEATHER AT THE DESTINATION AIRPORT, WHICH WAS VMC. EN ROUTE THE FLT ENCOUNTERED IMC OVER A MOUNTAIN RANGE. RADAR RETURNS INDICATED THAT AS THE WEATHER WAS ENCOUNTERED, THE FLIGHT DEVIATED FROM THE ASSIGNED AIRWAY, AND FOLLOWED MOUNTAIN PASSES. ATTEMPTS TO CONTACT THE PILOT SHORTLY AFTER HE LEFT THE ASSIGNED AIRWAY WERE UNSUCCESSFUL. THE AIRCRAFT WAS FOUND AT THE 10,600 ELEVATION OF A 11,413 FOOT MT, 30 MILES SOUTH OF COURSE. WEATHER IN THE AREA WAS IMC WITH MODERATE TO HEAVY ICING REPORTED SHORTLY AFTER THE ACCIDENT.
Verbatim NTSB analysis from the NTSB dataset
Sources
NTSB record ANC88FA051
- Event ID
- 20001213X25364
- Case number
- ANC88FA051
- 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: c59a65e1e1d5340990648fc14442ef32ceefd91c57be75c49225ce0802f2a187; retrieved 2026-09-21T03:44:37.275Z.