ANC03CA088 · de Havilland DHC-2
de Havilland DHC-2 · Accident: total loss of engine power (non-mechanical) during initial climb
From Iliamna Airport (ILI) to Iliamna Airport (ILI)
Narrative check · The NTSB narrative appears to contradict this record's departure or destination. Values are shown as recorded, not corrected; compare with the narrative.
Event
- NTSB case
- ANC03CA088
- 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
de Havilland DHC-2
- Aircraft type
- de Havilland DHC-2
- 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
- N930TG
- Operator
- Unknown
- Onboard fatalities
- Unknown
- Route Possible conflict
- From Iliamna Airport (ILI), Iliamna, AKTo Iliamna Airport (ILI), Iliamna, 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
- Total loss of engine power (non-mechanical)
- 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
- Fuel starvation
- 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
- Fluid, fuel › Starvation
- Pilot in command › Fuel tank selector position, incorrect
Approximate · Coordinates from the NTSB case API, which marks them as estimated or does not say; no uncertainty radius is established.
NTSB narrative
The solo commercial certificated pilot was departing from a remote lake in a float-equipped airplane. The pilot reported that this was the first time he had been assigned to fly the accident airplane, and that the airplane's main fuel valve was different than that of any other DHC-2 he had previously flown. Prior to takeoff, he placed the fuel selector valve in the "up" position, believing he had selected the center fuel tank. Just after takeoff, as the airplane climbed to about 30 feet above the water, the engine lost all power, and the airplane descended and struck a gravel-covered road at the departure end of the lake. The airplane sustained substantial damage to the fuselage. The pilot noted that a postaccident inspection of the airplane revealed that when he placed the fuel valve in the "up" position, he inadvertently selected the "off" position. The pilot added that the operator did not inform him of the differences associated with the accident airplane's fuel valve.
Probable cause
The pilot's incorrect selection of the fuel selector valve position during takeoff which resulted in fuel starvation. A factor associated with the accident was inadequate transition training provided to the pilot by the company/operator management.
Verbatim NTSB analysis and probable cause from the NTSB dataset
Sources
NTSB record ANC03CA088
- Event ID
- 20030912X01530
- Case number
- ANC03CA088
- 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, 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: 1d764a29bedac68de0e729705a1f933bce40c87af3e2cf914ee7c7a4f13ca603; retrieved 2026-09-22T09:06:01.756Z.