Jack Barber de Havilland DHC-2 accident
de Havilland DHC-2 · Accident: in flight encounter with weather during initial climb
From Nondalton Airport (5NN) to Port Alsworth Airport (TPO)
Event
- NTSB case
- ANC01LA121
- 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
- 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
de Havilland DHC-2
- Aircraft type
- de Havilland DHC-2
- 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
- N10395
- Operator
- Jack Barber
- Onboard fatalities
- Unknown
- Route
- From Nondalton Airport (5NN), Nondalton, AKTo Port Alsworth Airport (TPO), PORT ALSWORTH, 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 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
- 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 encounter with weather
- 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 › Compensation for wind conditions, inadequate
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 commerical pilot reported to the NTSB that just after takeoff, about 100 feet above the water, a very strong gust of wind rolled the wings of the float-equipped airplane about 90 degrees to the left. He said that he applied full right aileron in an attempt to regain control, but the airplane descended, and the left wing struck the surface of the water. As the airplane's left wing struck the surface of the water, the wing separated from the fuselage, pivoted the airplane 90 degrees to the left, and the right wing struck the water. Both floats were torn from the fuselage, and the airplane eventually sank in shallow water. The airplane sustained substantial damage to the fuselage, wings, and empennage. The pilot reported that wind conditions at the time of the accident were out of the northwest at 20 knots, with gusts to 30 knots.
Probable cause
The pilot's inadequate compensation for gusty wind conditions. Factors associated with the accident were the pilot's inadequate weather evaluation, and wind gusts.
Verbatim NTSB analysis and probable cause from the NTSB dataset
Sources
NTSB record ANC01LA121
- Event ID
- 20010829X01813
- Case number
- ANC01LA121
- 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: 7271a2d9d4968b170a8550498fedb6c56a948b4137a7ec5b26096bf0f3e5d3b8; retrieved 2026-09-18T16:10:20.280Z.