ANC01LA041 · Cessna 180
Cessna 180 · Accident: in flight collision with object during initial climb
From OPHIR, AK to McGrath Airport (PAMC)
Event
- NTSB case
- ANC01LA041
- 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
- Unknown
- 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
- N9383C
- Operator
- Unknown
- Onboard fatalities
- Unknown
- Route
- From OPHIR, AKTo McGrath Airport (PAMC), McGRATH, 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
- In flight collision with object
- 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
- 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
- Pilot in command › Preflight planning/preparation, inadequate
- Pilot in command › Unsuitable terrain or takeoff/landing/taxi area, selected
Not plotted · Location withheld: coordinates are missing, conflicting, invalid, or have no accepted acquisition method. No substitute location has been invented.
NTSB narrative
The commercial certificated pilot landed on snow-covered terrain in a wheel/ski-equipped airplane. By the time he departed, the surface of the snow had become crusty. The pilot said he began a takeoff run toward the south, but the airplane did not become airborne until it was within about 50 yards from several trees. During the initial climb, the left horizontal stabilizer collided with a spruce tree about 25 feet above the ground. The airplane began a descending left turn toward the ground, and collided with several trees while the pilot was making an emergency landing. The airplane received damage to the left main landing gear, the wings, and the left stabilizer.
Probable cause
The pilot's selection of unsuitable terrain for takeoff, and his inadequate preflight planning/preparation resulting in a collision with trees during the initial climb. Factors in the accident were soft, snow-covered terrain, and trees in the area of departure.
Verbatim NTSB analysis and probable cause from the NTSB dataset
Sources
NTSB record ANC01LA041
- Event ID
- 20010330X00679
- Case number
- ANC01LA041
- 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: 24c6e5e5efd2b150edbec41e4bc5307c247d3081ef3d2fc2c255e3b8d85a3df6; retrieved 2026-09-22T12:07:10.891Z.