ANC01FA106 · Maule M-6-235
Maule M-6-235 · Accident: in flight encounter with weather en route
From Ralph Wien Memorial Airport (OTZ) to Deering Airport (DEE)
Event
- NTSB case
- ANC01FA106
- 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
- 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
- Instrument Meteorological Cond
Maule M-6-235
- Aircraft type
- Maule M-6
- 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
- N56467
- Operator
- Unknown
- Onboard fatalities
- Unknown
- Route
- From Ralph Wien Memorial Airport (OTZ), Kotzebue, AKTo Deering Airport (DEE), Deering, 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); Tower (marked)
- 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 › Clearance, not maintained
- Pilot in command › VFR flight into imc, continued
Approximate · Coordinates from the NTSB case API, which marks them as estimated or does not say; no uncertainty radius is established.
NTSB narrative
The certificated private pilot, with one passenger, was departing southbound from an airport under special VFR conditions. Witnesses reported that weather conditions to the south, and specifically in the direction of accident site, were momentarily much worse than that being reported at the airport. About two minutes after takeoff, the airplane collided with a 335 feet tall commerical radio antenna tower. The tower was situated about 395 feet above sea level, and located 4.3 nautical miles south of the departure airport. The tower was installed in 1986, and was depicted as an obstruction on the VFR aviation sectional map covering the area around the departure airport. The tower was painted in an alternating aviation orange/aviation white pattern. Two sets of red light fixtures were installed about the 110 and 220 feet levels. Each set of lights had two lamps. A large flashing red light fixture was installed at the top of the tower. One of the two light fixture lamps, located on the lower portion of the tower, was not operating, and was scheduled for replacement. However, the second light fixture lamp located at that this position was still operating. A light sensitive switch (photocell), was installed that would automatically turn the tower lights "ON" when the surrounding ambient light decreased, and would turn the tower lights "OFF" when ambient light increased. At the time of the accident, the lights were configured so that they were in the "ON" position 24 hours per day. The accident took place during daylight hours. The antenna complied with the governing FCC's rules and regulations regarding marking and lighting of antennas, as well as the FAA's obstruction standards.
Probable cause
The pilot's failure to maintain adequate clearance from an obstruction (antenna tower), and his continued flight into instrument meteorological conditions. Factors associated with the accident were low ceilings, and low visibility.
Verbatim NTSB analysis and probable cause from the NTSB dataset
Sources
NTSB record ANC01FA106
- Event ID
- 20010824X01775
- Case number
- ANC01FA106
- 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, coordinates. 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: bd715a20c83d090da876840fae0a5d77a09bdf102cd54531cb213b0e40491587; retrieved 2026-09-20T20:24:41.218Z.