Wilbur'S Cessna 402B accident
Cessna 402B · Accident: vortex turbulence encountered on approach
From Valdez Pioneer Field (VDZ) to Ted Stevens Anchorage International Airport (ANC)
Event
- NTSB case
- ANC88FA019
- 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 402B
- Aircraft type
- Cessna 402
- 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
- N969JW
- Operator
- Wilbur'S
- Onboard fatalities
- Unknown
- Route
- From Valdez Pioneer Field (VDZ), Valdez, AKTo Ted Stevens Anchorage International Airport (ANC)
- 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 final
- 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
- Vortex turbulence encountered
- 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 › In-flight planning/decision, improper
Approximate · Coordinates as recorded by the NTSB; no uncertainty radius is established.
NTSB narrative
DRG ARR IN HVY TRAFFIC, REEVE FLT 726 (BOEING 727) & WILBURS FLT 304 (CESSNA 402B, N969JW) RECD RADAR ADZYS FOR VISUAL APCHS TO RWYS 6L & 6R, RESPECTIVELY. SUBSEQUENTLY, BOTH FLTS WERE CLRD TO LND. AT 1555:04, THE LCL TWR CTLR TRANSMITTED THAT THE WND AT THE APCH END OF RWY 6R WAS FM 340 DEG AT 9 KTS & THE MIDFLD WND WAS 330 DEG AT 7. AT APRX 1557, FLT 726 LNDD ON RWY 6L. APRX 69 SEC LATER, AS FLT 304 WAS X-ING THE THRESHOLD (THR) OF RWY 6R AT ABOUT 100' AGL, THE ACFT ENCTRDWAKE TURBC (W/T) & ROLLED SHARPLY TO THE RGT, BYD 90 DEG. THE PLT CORRECTED WITH AILERON & PWR, BUT THE ACFT LOST ALT & HIT THE GND BFR RCVRY. THE WND DRG THE 1601 WX OBS WAS 020 DEG AT 5 KTS. RWY CTRLNS WERE 700' APART, THRESHOLD OF RWY 6LWAS 4600' BYD THE THRESHOLD OF RWY 6R. THE APCH CTLR DID NOT ADZ EITHER FLT OF THE OTHER'S PSN, NOR DID THE TWR CTLR GIVE A W/T ADZRY TO FLT 304. CALCULATIONS SHOWED VORTICES COULD HAVE DRIFTED FM RWY 6L TO RWY 6R IN AS LITTLE AS 28 SEC.FAA HNDBK ADDRESSED W/T ADZY FOR PARALLEL RWY OPNS WITH LESS THAN 2500' SEPN, BUT DID NOT ADDRESS OFFSET THRESHOLDS.
Verbatim NTSB analysis from the NTSB dataset
Sources
NTSB record ANC88FA019
- Event ID
- 20001213X32645
- Case number
- ANC88FA019
- 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: 3ef93824ef8c5d7339bd4cbe6fb2d9dea3e1fc5d26535721be77034cd014f2c7; retrieved 2026-09-18T19:34:29.425Z.