ANC01LA148 · Cessna 180
Cessna 180 · Accident: total loss of engine power (non-mechanical) en route
From LAKE CLARK, AK to Anderson Lake Airport (0AK1)
Event
- NTSB case
- ANC01LA148
- 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
- N74806
- Operator
- Unknown
- Onboard fatalities
- Unknown
- Route
- From LAKE CLARK, AKTo Anderson Lake Airport (0AK1), Wasilla, 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
- Total loss of engine power (non-mechanical)
- 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
- Reason for occurrence undetermined
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 in cruise flight about 800 feet agl in a float-equipped airplane, when the engine began to lose power. The pilot reported that he switched the fuel tank selector from the right tank to the "BOTH" position, and the engine continued to run for about another two minutes. He said he did not apply any carburetor heat, and the engine again lost power. The pilot selected a forced landing area on a small, marshy lake. After landing, he noticed leading edge damage on the left horizontal stabilizer. He said the damage appeared to be the result of striking a tree limb during the emergency landing. The pilot, who is also a certificated mechanic, said he replaced the entire leading edge of the stabilizer. The pilot said that after the emergency landing, he did not find any obvious engine problem. The wing fuel tanks contained about 1.5 to 2 inches of fuel, and the fuel screens and the fuel tank sumps were clean. He said he suspected carburetor icing, or water in the fuel, as the engine problem.
Probable cause
A loss of engine power during cruise flight for an undertermined reason.
Verbatim NTSB analysis and probable cause from the NTSB dataset
Sources
NTSB record ANC01LA148
- Event ID
- 20011003X02031
- Case number
- ANC01LA148
- 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: b4a61dcf98009dffc0b964f15ff75b096e094c46cedd78683efe0c56923d375d; retrieved 2026-09-22T11:35:06.853Z.