Ryan Air Cessna 207A accident
Cessna 207A · Accident: partial loss of engine power (non-mechanical) on approach
From Kalskag Airport (KLG) to Russian Mission Airport (RSH)
Event
- NTSB case
- ANC89LA031
- 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
Cessna 207A
- Aircraft type
- Cessna 207
- 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
- N7329U
- Operator
- Ryan Air
- Onboard fatalities
- Unknown
- Route
- From Kalskag Airport (KLG), KALSKAG, AKTo Russian Mission Airport (RSH), RUSSIAN MISSION, 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
- Approach · VFR pattern downwind
- 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
- Partial loss of engine power (non-mechanical)
- 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
- Powerplant › Failure, partial
Approximate · Coordinates as recorded by the NTSB; no uncertainty radius is established.
NTSB narrative
THE COMMERCIAL AIR TAXI PILOT AND HIS PASSENGER WERE UNINJURED FOLLOWING A FORCED LANDING. THE PILOT SAID THAT HE HAD FLOWN OVER HIS INTENDED LANDING SITE AT RUSSIAN MISSION, AK., TO INSPECT THE RUNWAY. ON THE DOWNWIND LEG, THE ENGINE OF CESSNA 207 LOST MOST OF ITS POWER. HE WAS UNABLE TO RESTORE SUFFICIENT POWER TO REMAIN AIRBORNE AND ELECTED TO LAND ON THE NEARBY, FROZEN, YUKON RIVER. HE SAID THAT HE MISJUDGED HIS ALTITUDE DURING THE LANDING APPROACH DUE TO THE FEATURELESS, ALL WHITE SURFACE OF THE RIVER, AND STRUCK THE SURFACE WHILE STILL IN A SLIGHT RIGHT TURN. INSPECTION OF THE CRASH SITE TWO DAYS AFTER THE ACCIDENT REVEALED NUMEROUS ICE CRYSTALS IN THE LEFT FUEL TANK SUMP. NO OTHER OBVIOUS ABNORMALITIES WERE NOTED. IT IS UNKNOWN IF THE ICE CRYSTALS FOUND IN THE FUEL TANK WERE CONTRIBUTORY TO THE ACCIDENT DUE TO THE LENGTH OF TIME BETWEEN THE SAMPLE AND THE ACCIDENT.
Probable cause
THE PARTIAL ENGINE POWER LOSS DUE TO UNDETERMINED REASONS. CONTRIBUTING TO THE ACCIDENT WAS THE PILOT'S IMPROPER INFLIGHT PLANNING BY FLYING AT A TRAFFIC PATTERN ALTITUDE INSUFFICIENT TO INSURE A SAFE EMERGENCY LANDING EITHER ON OR OFF THE AIRPORT AND HIS MISJUDGEMENT OF CLEARANCE ABOVE THE FROZEN RIVER.
Verbatim NTSB analysis and probable cause from the NTSB dataset
Sources
NTSB record ANC89LA031
- Event ID
- 20001213X27517
- Case number
- ANC89LA031
- 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: 84a56f7289ab281b790e3df2d30c80cf07b085ce30437c5107143c1310c0c174; retrieved 2026-09-18T19:15:30.495Z.