L.A.B. Flying Service Piper PA-32-300 accident
Piper PA-32-300 · Accident: loss of engine power while maneuvering
From C · DRY BAY, AK to C · Haines, AK
Event
- NTSB case
- SEA82DA104
- 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
- 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
Piper PA-32-300
- Aircraft type
- Piper PA-32
- 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
- N1119X
- Operator
- L.A.B. Flying Service
- Onboard fatalities
- Unknown
- Route
- From C · DRY BAY, AKTo C · Haines, 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
- Maneuvering · turn to reverse direction
- 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
- Loss of engine power
- 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 › In-flight planning/decision, improper
- Reason for occurrence undetermined
Approximate · Coordinates as recorded by the NTSB; no uncertainty radius is established.
NTSB narrative
THE PILOT REPORTED THAT DURING DEPARTURE, HE PROCEEDED EAST ALONG THE ALSEK RIVER AND ALONG THE SOUTH SIDE OF THE ALSEK GLACIER WHILE CLIMBING TO 6200 FT. HE THEN DECIDED THAT THE INTENDED ROUTE WAS CLOSED DUE TO LOW CLOUDS AND HE INITIATED A TURN TO REVERSE COURSE. REPORTLY, A LEFT TURN WAS COMMENCED AND "ONE NOTCH OF FLAPS SET." THE PILOT STATED THAT SHORTLY AFTER THAT, THE ENGINE BEGAN TO LOSE POWER. HE REPORTED THAT THE MIXTURE, PROPS AND THROTTLE WERE ADVANCED, BUT THERE WAS NO INCREASE IN POWER. HE SWITCHED THE FUEL SELECTOR FROM THE RIGHT TO THE LEFT MAIN TANK AND TURNED ON THE BOOST PUMP. HE STATED THE PLANE CONTINUED TO LOSE ALTITUDE AND CONTINUATION OF THE TURN WAS IMPOSSIBLE DUE TO TERRAIN. HE DECIDED TO TRY AND CROSS OVER THE GLACIER AND LAND ON A SOLID STRETCH OF ICE, BUT THERE WAS INSUFFICIENT ALTITUDE AND THE PLANE CRASHED. A SUBSEQUENT EXAMINATION AND TEST RUN OF THE ENGINE REVEALED NO DISCREPANCIES.
Verbatim NTSB analysis from the NTSB dataset
Sources
NTSB record SEA82DA104
- Event ID
- 20020917X04109
- Case number
- SEA82DA104
- 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. Values present in the bulk record are kept.
- The date is the UTC date the NTSB stores; the local time zone is not recorded, so the local date may differ by a day.
- API snapshot SHA-256: 643e272eaf3ea4e71af1b4e1e886a413b3833bee3b9bf9e351d4e574db464446; retrieved 2026-09-18T21:08:24.760Z.