ANC82DA071 · Piper PA-12
Piper PA-12 · Accident: partial loss of engine power (non-mechanical) during initial climb
From POLLY CREEK, AK to LHD · Anchorage
Event
- NTSB case
- ANC82DA071
- 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
- 0
- 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
Piper PA-12
- Aircraft type
- Piper PA-12
- 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
- N2701M
- Operator
- Gary S. Liepitz · private individual
- Onboard fatalities
- Unknown
- Route
- From POLLY CREEK, AKTo LHD · Anchorage
- 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
- Partial 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
- Fuel starvation
- 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
- Fluid, fuel › Starvation
- Pilot in command › Aircraft preflight, inadequate
- Pilot in command › Fuel tank selector position, improper
Approximate · Coordinates as recorded by the NTSB; no uncertainty radius is established.
NTSB narrative
THE PILOT LANDED ON THE BEACH NEAR THE MOUTH OF POLLY CREEK TO GO FISHING. AFTER FISHING FOR SEVERAL HOURS. HE NOTICED FUEL LEAKING FROM THE FILLER CAP ON THE LEFT MAIN TANK. THIS OCCURRED WHEN FUEL CROSS-FLOWED FROM THE RIGHT AUXILIARY TANK. THE PILOT TURNED OFF THE LEFT MAIN AND RIGHT AUXILIARY FUEL TANKS TO STOP THE CROSS FEED. AFTER SEVERAL MORE HOURS, THE TIDE BEGAN COMING IN AND THE PILOT HURRIED HIS PREFLIGHT TO GET OFF THE BEACH DURING TAKEOFF, THE ENGINE COUGHED AT LIFT-OFF, PROMOTING THE PILOT TO ABORT. THE AIRCRAFT BOUNCED 2 OR 3 TIMES ON THE BEACH WHICH WAS UNEVEN, THEN THE LEFT MAIN GEAR ENTERED THE SURF. SUBSEQUENTLY, THE PLANE VEERED AND NOSED OVER IN DEEPER WATER. THE PILOT STATED THAT HE HAD PLANNED TO TAKEOFF USING THE FULL LEFT TANK. AFTER THE ACCIDENT, HE FOUND THE RIGHT FUEL SELECTOR WAS ON, BUT THE LEFT MAIN TANK WAS ONLY PARTIALLY ON. HE BELIEVED THIS CAUSED THE ENGINE TO SPUTTER FROM FUEL STARVATION. BEFORE RECOVERY, THE PLANE WAS FURTHER DAMAGED BY THE SURF.
Verbatim NTSB analysis from the NTSB dataset
Sources
NTSB record ANC82DA071
- Event ID
- 20020917X02662
- Case number
- ANC82DA071
- 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. Values present in the bulk record are kept.
- The date is the local date; the NTSB stores the UTC date 1982-08-13.
- API snapshot SHA-256: 7249450761df5f224b7bce8409c0f782b7b43b1bc7658f1d5ed08705de458cb2; retrieved 2026-09-24T01:37:14.596Z.