ANC83FA154 · Cessna 180
Cessna 180 · Accident: in flight encounter with weather en route
From North Pole, AK to PORTAGE CREEK, AK
Event
- NTSB case
- ANC83FA154
- 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
- 3 · 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
Cessna 180
- Aircraft type
- Cessna 180
- 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
- N2145Z
- Operator
- Unknown
- Onboard fatalities
- Unknown
- Route
- From North Pole, AKTo PORTAGE CREEK, 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
- En route · cruise
- 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 encounter with weather
- 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
- Visual flight rules (VFR) flight into instrument meteorological conditions (IMC)
- DamageDestroyed: beyond practical repair. Substantial: damage that affects the structure, performance or handling and normally needs major repair. Minor: less than that. Glossary
- Destroyed
Cause areas
- Pilot in command › VFR flight into imc, continued
Approximate · Coordinates as recorded by the NTSB; no uncertainty radius is established.
NTSB narrative
AT APRX 1900 ADT, THE PLT & 2 PASSENGERS DEPARTED NORTH POLE, AK ON A FLT TO PORTAGE CREEK STRIP. DURING THE FLT, HE CONTACTED FLT SERVICE TO OBTAIN WX INFORMATION. HE ASKED FOR & WAS PROVIDED THE WX AT SEVERAL LOCATIONS. ALSO, HE STATED THAT HE WAS REALLY TRYING TO FIND OUT WHAT THE WX WAS LIKE IN 'THE FOOTHILLS OF THE ALASKA RANGE DOWN TOWARD DELTA.' HOWEVER, THERE WERE NO REPORT FOR THAT AREA. AT APRX 1945 ADT, THE ACFT COLLIDED WITH RISING TERRAIN NEAR THE TOP OF A MOUNTAIN RIDGE. REPORTEDLY, IT STRUCK THE MOUNTAIN AT APRX 4050 FT MSL WHILE IN LEVEL FLT. THE TOP OF THE RIDGE WAS ABOUT 4090 FT MSL. NO PREIMPACT/MECHANICAL WAS FOUND. THE PROPELLER BLADES WERE FOUND TWISTED & BENT & THE PROPELLER HAD SEPARATED FROM THE CRANKSHAFT DURING IMPACT. THE 2000 ADT WX AT FAIRBANKS, AK (54 MI SOUTHWEST OF THE CRASH SITE) WAS 1000 FT OVERCAST, VISIBILITY 30 MI, WIND FROM 240 AT 7 KTS, TEMP 51, DEW POINT 47. THE ELEVATION OF THAT REPORTING POINT WAS 434 FT MSL.
Verbatim NTSB analysis from the NTSB dataset
Sources
NTSB record ANC83FA154
- Event ID
- 20001214X43965
- Case number
- ANC83FA154
- 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 1983-08-27.
- API snapshot SHA-256: 384391338b4fe21e610b5d287dfe83cc93ca9e2e4f5e02be754355f3548298f1; retrieved 2026-09-21T06:17:41.250Z.