ANC83LA085 · Piper PA-12
Piper PA-12 · Accident: in flight collision with terrain/water while maneuvering
From Tazlina Airport (Z14) to an unrecorded destination
Event
- NTSB case
- ANC83LA085
- 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
- 1 · 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
- Unknown
Piper PA-12
- Aircraft type
- Piper PA-12
- 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
- N3742M
- Operator
- Unknown
- Onboard fatalities
- Unknown
- Route
- From Tazlina Airport (Z14), TAZIINA LODGE, AKTo not recorded
- 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 › Altitude, misjudged
- Pilot in command › Judgment, poor
Approximate · Coordinates as recorded by the NTSB; no uncertainty radius is established.
NTSB narrative
REPORTEDLY, THE PLT & PASSENGER HAD WORKED A LONG DAY BEFORE GOING TO THEIR RESPECTIVE HOMES TO ATTEND HOUSEHOLD CHORES. LATER, THEY MET, AND REPORTEDLY, THEY CONSUMED FOOD & BEER. EVENTUALLY, THEY ARRIVED AT THE LOCATION OF WHERE THE PLT'S PLANE WAS PARKED. THE 2 OCCUPANTS GOT INTO THE ACFT & FLEW FOR A WHILE, THEN LANDED ALONG THE SHORE OF TAZLINA LAKE FOR PHYSIOLOGICAL RELIEF. SHORTLY AFTER THAT THEY TOOK OFF AGAIN. ACCORDING TO THE PASSENGER, THE PLT WAS EXPLANING A MANEUVER (FORWARD SIDE-SLIP) WHEN THE ACFT COLLIDED WITH THE SURFACE OF TAZLINE LAKE. THE PASSENGER WAS DAZED BY THE IMPACT, BUT GOT OUT WHILE THE PLANE WAS SINKING. HE DOVE TO RESCUE THE PLT BUT WAS UNABLE. LATER, THE PLT'S BODY WAS RECOVERED. A CHECK OF HIS BLOOD REVEALED AN ALCOHOL LEVEL OF 0.103%. AREAS OF SURFACE FOG WERE REPORTED OVER THE LAKE UP TO APRX 10 OR 20 FT ABOVE THE WATER. EXCEPT FOR THE FOG (WATER SMOKE), THE CEILING & VISIBILITY WERE UNLIMITED.
Verbatim NTSB analysis from the NTSB dataset
Sources
NTSB record ANC83LA085
- Event ID
- 20001214X42852
- Case number
- ANC83LA085
- 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: cbfdfc8496ed838dfff3f9dfeef35007af2e299d526a59d5efac9294219bd5e3; retrieved 2026-09-21T06:44:14.099Z.