Bellair Piper PA-32 accident
Piper PA-32 and Larry'S Flying Service Piper PA-32 · Accident: collision between aircraft (not in flight) while taxiing
Event
- NTSB case
- ANC03LA005
- 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
- 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
Aircraft 1 · Piper PA-32
- 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
- N76RL
- Operator
- Bellair
- Onboard fatalities
- Unknown
- Route
- From Bethel Airport (PABE), Bethel, AKTo Eek Airport (EEK), EEK, 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
- Taxi · to runway
- 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
- Collision between aircraft (not in flight)
- DamageDestroyed: beyond practical repair. Substantial: damage that affects the structure, performance or handling and normally needs major repair. Minor: less than that. Glossary
- Minor
Aircraft 2 · Piper PA-32
- 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
- N31657
- Operator
- Larry'S Flying Service
- Onboard fatalities
- Unknown
- Route
- From Russian Mission Airport (RSH), RUSSIAN MISSION, AKTo Bethel Airport (PABE), Bethel, 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
- Taxi · from runway
- 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
- Collision between aircraft (not in flight)
- 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
- Pilots of both aircraft › Visual lookout, not maintained
Approximate · Coordinates from the NTSB case API, which marks them as estimated or does not say; no uncertainty radius is established.
NTSB narrative
A Piper PA-32 airplane, N76RL, collided with a second Piper PA-32, N31657, as both airplanes were taxiing on the airport ramp. The operators of each of the two airplanes have adjacent loading areas on the ramp. The airline transport certificated pilot of the first Piper was preparing to depart on a cargo flight. The airplane was parked at the operator's ramp area, being fueled by a fuel truck parked in front of the airplane. The fuel truck blocked the pilot's view of the ramp. The fuel truck pulled away, and the pilot started the engine. He then applied engine power to begin a taxi from his parking spot. The pilot indicated he saw no other airplanes due to the high nose angle of his airplane. The commercial certificated pilot of the second Piper was taxiing from landing to the ramp area, headed for a parking spot adjacent to the first Piper. He did not see the first Piper due to the position of the fuel truck. As the second Piper was approaching its parking spot, the pilot began a right turn. At the same time, the fuel truck pulled away, revealing the first Piper pulling out of its parking spot. The pilot of the second Piper tightened his right turn, but the propeller of the first Piper sliced into the leading edge of the second Piper's left wing. The first Piper received minor damage and the second Piper received substantial damage.
Probable cause
The failure of both pilot's to maintain a visual outlook during taxi operations on the ramp.
Verbatim NTSB analysis and probable cause from the NTSB dataset
Sources
NTSB record ANC03LA005
- Event ID
- 20021025X05384
- Case number
- ANC03LA005
- Dataset
- historical-pre2008
- Source SHA-256
- 89e2df6d848e7ab3b42e7d7c7a03ff403303057a26ca04c95b3ea67201c3ce74
Source notes (6)
- 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: 3ffb7007f11f297c7b3eb03f18d3e7a7fdb5c0036323afa5ddc88e3ff08d4690; retrieved 2026-09-18T15:57:27.483Z.
- The NTSB's operator name is blank for N76RL; the operator shown is the name the NTSB's other records give its FAA operator code, GSBA.
- The NTSB's operator name is blank for N31657; the operator shown is the name the NTSB's other records give its FAA operator code, FWRA.