ANC01LA127 · Cessna 170A
Cessna 170A · Accident: in flight collision with object during takeoff
From CHICKALOON, AK to Ted Stevens Anchorage International Airport (PANC)
Event
- NTSB case
- ANC01LA127
- 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 170A
- Aircraft type
- Cessna 170
- 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
- N9791A
- Operator
- Unknown
- Onboard fatalities
- Unknown
- Route
- From CHICKALOON, AKTo Ted Stevens Anchorage International Airport (PANC), Anchorage, 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
- Takeoff · rejected takeoff
- 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 › Aborted takeoff, delayed
Approximate · Coordinates from the NTSB case API, which marks them as estimated or does not say; no uncertainty radius is established.
NTSB narrative
The commercial certificated pilot was departing his private airstrip on runway 24. The airstrip is 2,200 feet long, and is located at 1,875 feet msl. In a telephone conversation with the NTSB IIC, the pilot said he added full engine power, and pushed the carburetor heat control off when he began the takeoff run. The airplane lifted off to about 20 feet agl near the departure end of the runway. The pilot said the airplane did not seem to be climbing and he aborted the takeoff by closing the engine throttle and intentionally stalling the airplane into trees at the departure end of the runway. The airplane received damage to the wings, fuselage, and landing gear. The pilot said the weather conditions at the time of the accident were broken clouds about 6,000 feet; unlimited visibility; temperature about 62 degrees F; and light wind from 240 degrees. In the narrative portion of the NTSB Pilot/Operator Report submitted by the pilot, the pilot said the "carburetor heat control was out (heat was on)."
Probable cause
The pilot's delay in aborting the takeoff. Factors in the accident were the presence of trees at the end of the departure path, and the pilot's improper use of the carburetor heat control.
Verbatim NTSB analysis and probable cause from the NTSB dataset
Sources
NTSB record ANC01LA127
- Event ID
- 20010830X01840
- Case number
- ANC01LA127
- 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, coordinates. Values present in the bulk record are kept.
- The date is the local date; the NTSB stores the UTC date 2001-08-29.
- API snapshot SHA-256: 696f5b5f5a18da4efc0a06cb5d7e37692bcb1030a8f7e80d57a4e9204820aa02; retrieved 2026-09-21T09:51:33.260Z.