Cape Smythe Air Service Piper PA-31T3 accident
Piper PA-31T3 · Accident: on ground/water collision with terrain/water during landing
From Deadhorse Airport (PASC) to Barter Island Long Range Radar Station Airport (PABA)
Event
- NTSB case
- ANC04LA037
- 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
Piper PA-31T3
- Aircraft type
- Piper PA-31
- 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
- N223CS
- Operator
- Cape Smythe Air Service
- Onboard fatalities
- Unknown
- Route
- From Deadhorse Airport (PASC), Deadhorse, AKTo Barter Island Long Range Radar Station Airport (PABA), Kaktovik, 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
- 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
- On ground/water collision with terrain/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
- Pilot in command › 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
During an IFR air taxi flight, the airline transport certificated pilot was landing a twin-engine turboprop airplane at a remote arctic airport. The visibility minimum for the GPS approach was 1 mile. En route to the airport, the automated weather observation system (AWOS) was reporting a visibility of 1.5 miles. The pilot began the global positioning system (GPS) approach to runway 06. Two miles from the runway, the pilot saw the runway and decided to circle to land on runway 24. While turning base for runway 24, the pilot lost sight of the runway and discontinued the landing approach. The pilot was cleared for another GPS approach to runway 06. At 1.5 miles from the runway, the pilot saw the runway and continued the landing approach. About 20 feet agl, the pilot experienced flat light conditions that limited his view of the runway so that he could only distinguish the runway lights as his landing reference. The airplane touched down about 1,700 feet beyond the approach end of runway 06. The airplane encountered about 2 feet of snow on the runway, pulled to the right, and came to a stop about 3,000 feet beyond the approach end. The airplane received damage to the right engine propeller, the fuselage belly cargo pod, the right main landing gear door, and the elevator trim tab. At the time of the accident (1515), the visibility was reported as 2.5 statute miles. The visibility at 1455 was 1 statute mile. The FAA Facility Directory for the airport states, in part: "Airport remarks - Attended 0600 to 2400. Runway not monitored. Recommend visual inspection prior to landing." The airport manager reported that the accident airplane arrived during near zero visibility conditions. The runway had been cleared the previous day, but had not been cleared on the day of the accident because of drifting snow and near zero visibility. FAR 91.103 Preflight Action, states, in part: "Each pilot in command shall, before beginning a flight, become familiar with all available information concerning the flight." FAR 135.229 Airport Requirements, states, in part: "(a) No certificate holder may use any airport unless it is adequate for the proposed operation, considering such items as size, surface, obstructions, and lighting."
Probable cause
The pilot's selection of unsuitable terrain for landing, which resulted in the airplane colliding with drifted snow during the landing roll. Factors contributing to the accident were a snow covered runway, airport personnel's failure to remove accumulated snow on the runway, and flat light conditions at the airport.
Verbatim NTSB analysis and probable cause from the NTSB dataset
Sources
NTSB record ANC04LA037
- Event ID
- 20040330X00384
- Case number
- ANC04LA037
- 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: 0337ccd1b03ab65c9bda0b326531857f3c204c6a33be8a0a3ba865fb947202d5; retrieved 2026-09-18T15:28:20.753Z.