ANC89FA143 · Piper PA-19
Piper PA-19 · Accident: partial loss of engine power (non-mechanical) during initial climb
From Lake Hood Seaplane Base (LHD) to Soldotna Airport (SXQ)
Event
- NTSB case
- ANC89FA143
- 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
Piper PA-19
- Aircraft type
- Piper PA-19
- 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
- N5417H
- Operator
- Donlan, Jeffrey M. · private individual
- Onboard fatalities
- Unknown
- Route
- From Lake Hood Seaplane Base (LHD), Anchorage, AKTo Soldotna Airport (SXQ), Soldotna, 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
- Initial climb
- 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)
- 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
- Fuel contamination; Tree(s)
- 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
- Fluid, fuel › Water
- Pilot in command › Operation with known deficiencies in equipment, initiated
- Pilot in command › Preflight planning/preparation, inadequate
Approximate · Coordinates as recorded by the NTSB; no uncertainty radius is established.
NTSB narrative
THE PLT RPRTD THAT SHORTLY AFTER TAKEOFF, THE ENG BGN TO LOSE PWR. HE WAS UNABLE TO RETURN TO THE SEAPLANE BASE OR FINDANOTHER SUITABLE LNDG SITE. WHEN HE ATMTD TO LND ON A RESIDENTIAL STREET, THE ACFT HIT A TREE, THEN CRASHED, HITTING APOSTBOX & FENCE. AN EXAM OF THE ACFT REVEALED NO MECHANICAL ANOMALIES THAT WOULD HAVE PRECLUDED NML FLT. THE CARBURETORWAS DISASSEMBLED & WAS FOUND TO CONTAIN MORE THAN 1/4 INCH OF WATER. THE PLT STATED THAT HE HAD EXPERIENCED A TOTAL LOSSOF POWER APRX 2 WEEKS EARLIER, BUT MADE A SUCCESSFUL FORCED LANDING. HE DRAINED A LARGE QUANTITY OF WATER FROM THE RIGHTFUEL TANK (AS BEST HE COULD), BUT DECIDED TO OPERATE THE ACFT BY JUST USING THE LEFT FUEL TANK. HE SAID THAT HE USED THELEFT TANK FOR TAKEOFF ON THE ACDNT FLT, BUT AFTER THE OCCURRENCE, HE WAS CONCERNED THAT WATER FROM THE RIGHT TANK MAYHAVE CONTAMINATED THE REST OF THE FUEL SYSTEM.
Probable cause
OPERATION WITH A KNOWN DEFICIENCY IN THE AIRCRAFT AND WATER CONTAMINATION OF THE FUEL DUE TO INADEQUATE PREFLIGHT PREPARATION BY THE PILOT. FACTORS RELATED TO THE ACCIDENT WERE: LACK OF SUITABLE TERRAIN FOR A FORCED LANDING AND TREE(S).
Verbatim NTSB analysis and probable cause from the NTSB dataset
Sources
NTSB record ANC89FA143
- Event ID
- 20001213X28995
- Case number
- ANC89FA143
- 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 1989-08-19.
- API snapshot SHA-256: 424b9284c25b359923db74b251c7d977b7ff36db48f2bc15985a700dc920c29b; retrieved 2026-09-23T07:14:50.332Z.