ANC83LA015 · Cessna 170B
Cessna 170B · Accident: in flight collision with object while maneuvering
From Elim Airport (ELI) to C · Kotzebue, AK
Narrative check · The NTSB narrative appears to contradict this record's injuries. Values are shown as recorded, not corrected; compare with the narrative.
Event
- NTSB case
- ANC83LA015
- 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
Cessna 170B
- 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
- N2780D
- Operator
- Harry W. James · private individual
- Onboard fatalities
- Unknown
- Route
- From Elim Airport (ELI), ELIM, AKTo C · Kotzebue, 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
- Maneuvering
- 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
- 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 › Buzzing, intentional
- Pilot in command › Clearance, misjudged
- Pilot in command › Judgment, poor
Approximate · Coordinates as recorded by the NTSB; no uncertainty radius is established.
NTSB narrative
ACCORDING TO A WITNESS, THE ACFT LIFTED OFF THE RWY ABOUT MIDFIELD, CLIMBED TO ABOUT 30-50 FT AGL & THEN BEGAN A DIVE. THE WITNESS HEARD NO CHANGE IN ENG SOUND. THE ACFT'S WING FIRST STRUCK A BOX SET ON TOP OF OTHER EQUIPMENT ON THE GROUND(ABOUT 4 FT 6 IN HIGH), STRUCK THE WINDSHIELD ON A SNOWMOBILE & THEN STRUCK THE VICTIM WHO WAS THROWN 15-20 FT. THE WITNESS STATED HE HAD TO DIVE TO THE GROUND TO ESCAPE INJURY. HE ALSO STATED HE HAD OBSERVED THE PLT'S ACFT DIVE AT PEOPLE ON A PREVIOUS OCCASION. THE PLT STATED HE WAS PRACTICING A FORCED LANDING.
Verbatim NTSB analysis from the NTSB dataset
Sources
NTSB record ANC83LA015
- Event ID
- 20020917X04235
- Case number
- ANC83LA015
- 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 local date, which is the same as the UTC date the NTSB stores.
- API snapshot SHA-256: c3cba6a256aea18cb7ef865ebd3971c1a5abb663c434b980224f00088eb275e2; retrieved 2026-09-21T18:04:02.247Z.