ANC03FA094 · Beech V35-B
Beech V35-B · Accident: loss of control in flight during initial climb
From Skagway Airport (PAGY) to Yakutat Airport (PAYA)
Event
- NTSB case
- ANC03FA094
- 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
- 3 · 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
Beech V35-B
- Aircraft type
- Beechcraft 35
- 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
- N4317S
- Operator
- Unknown
- Onboard fatalities
- Unknown
- Route
- From Skagway Airport (PAGY), Skagway, AKTo Yakutat Airport (PAYA), Yakutat, 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
- 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
- Loss of control in flight
- 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
- Stall; Tree(s)
- 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 › Airspeed(vs), 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
The private certificated pilot departed from a near sea level runway situated in a narrow valley. The runway is 3,550 feet long by 75 feet wide. Steep mountains are located on either side of the departure path, which places the airplane in an increasingly narrowing canyon. The accident airplane was observed to takeoff on runway 02 and began a tight, climbing left turn. The direction of the turn placed the airplane near rising terrain to the northwest of the airport. The airplane was observed to descend, nose down, into the trees, followed by a fire. The location of the accident was along a steep hillside, at an elevation of about 260 feet msl. A postaccident examination of the airplane disclosed that it collided with the ground in a steep, nose down attitude. A postcrash fire consumed the cockpit/cabin area. Witnesses described the airplane's engine as running at all times. Evidence of numerous cut tree limbs at the scene were consistent with engine power. A postaccident examination of the airplane revealed no observed preimpact mechanical malfunctions. The FAA's Airport Facility Directory entry for the airport, states, in part: "Recommended daylight operations only. ...Approach to runway 20 in [a] narrow canyon. Turbulence and high obstructions. ...When departing runway 02, maintain runway heading for at least 1/2 mile to avoid nearby school and playground." Local users of the airport have developed a takeoff procedure for runway 02. The takeoff procedure recommends that airplanes make a slight right turn during climb-out to hug the right side of the canyon wall, then make a left climbing turn to clear the ridgeline northwest of the airport. The pilot was making a long distance cross-country flight and was not familiar with the airport.
Probable cause
The pilot's failure to maintain adequate airspeed and subsequent inadvertent stall, which resulted in a collision with trees during takeoff-initial climb. Factors contributing to the accident were terrain features consisting of a ravine and rising terrain on either side of the departure runway.
Verbatim NTSB analysis and probable cause from the NTSB dataset
Sources
NTSB record ANC03FA094
- Event ID
- 20030814X01332
- Case number
- ANC03FA094
- 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 2003-08-09.
- API snapshot SHA-256: f8bb366d9e4e76d8418430c8b68fec18f8f525617b03303607ec3243961568bb; retrieved 2026-09-20T18:59:51.104Z.