ANC03LA019 · Swearingen SA-226T
Swearingen SA-226T · Accident: loss of control on ground/water during landing
From Ted Stevens Anchorage International Airport (ANC) to Soldotna Airport (SXQ)
Event
- NTSB case
- ANC03LA019
- 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
Swearingen SA-226T
- Aircraft type
- Swearingen SA-226
- 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
- N55ZP
- Operator
- Unknown
- Onboard fatalities
- Unknown
- Route
- From Ted Stevens Anchorage International Airport (ANC), Anchorage, AKTo Soldotna Airport (SXQ), Soldotna, 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
- Landing · landing roll
- 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 control on ground/water
- 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
- Flightcrew › Unsuitable terrain or takeoff/landing/taxi area, selected
Approximate · Coordinates from the NTSB case API, which marks them as estimated or does not say; no uncertainty radius is established.
NTSB narrative
The two certificated airline transport pilots were positioning the airplane for a medical transport flight. The captain said that during his preflight weather briefing, the dispatcher informed him that there was a current Notice to Airmen (NOTAM) concerning 6 inches of loose snow on the runway at the destination airport. The dispatcher said that he had called the airport maintenance manager, at his home, in order to check on the current status of the runway. According to the dispatcher, the airport manager confirmed that there were 6 inches of snow on the runway, and stated that the runway would not be plowed until the next morning. The dispatcher reported to the captain that the airport maintenance manager said: "there were small planes going in and out of there all day, and that conditions were okay." According to the airport maintenance manager, he received a call from the operator's dispatcher, at home, requesting an updated report on the runway conditions. He said that he confirmed that there was still about 5-1/2 inches of snow on the runway, and that it would not be removed until early the next morning. He said that he told the dispatcher: "landing would be at your own risk." The captain said that just after touchdown, the airplane's main landing gear dug into the deep snow, and the airplane experienced a rapid deceleration. He said that the airplane tracked down the centerline on the runway for about 900 feet, but eventually veered to the left. The left propeller struck a runway edge light, and the airplane continued off the left side of the runway, down an embankment, and into an area of tree-covered terrain. The airplane sustained substantial damage to the fuselage. Both flight crewmembers noted that there were no preaccident mechanical anomalies with the airplane.
Probable cause
The flightcrew's selection of an unsuitable landing area, which resulted in a loss of directional control and an on ground encounter with terrain. A factor associated with the accident was a snow-covered, unplowed runway.
Verbatim NTSB analysis and probable cause from the NTSB dataset
Sources
NTSB record ANC03LA019
- Event ID
- 20021231X05646
- Case number
- ANC03LA019
- 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, coordinates. Values present in the bulk record are kept.
- The date is the local date; the NTSB stores the UTC date 2002-12-19.
- API snapshot SHA-256: cef3a60d0ced3bb73c312cc179778885c7c097cb3665c47445c61490189afc38; retrieved 2026-09-22T09:47:48.574Z.