ANC05TA058 · de Havilland DHC-2
National Park Service de Havilland DHC-2 · Accident: on ground/water collision with terrain/water while taxiing
From Talkeetna Airport (PATK) to Ruth Glacier, AK
Narrative check · The NTSB narrative appears to contradict this record's operation. Values are shown as recorded, not corrected; compare with the narrative.
Event
- NTSB case
- ANC05TA058
- 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 Possible conflict
- 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
- N8190Y
- Operator
- National Park Service
- Onboard fatalities
- Unknown
- Route
- From Talkeetna Airport (PATK), Talkeetna, AKTo Ruth Glacier, 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
- 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
- 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
The airline transport pilot was conducting a federal public use flight under Title 14, CFR Part 91, when he landed a ski-equipped airplane on a glacier. In a written statement to the NTSB, the pilot reported exiting the landing area in a wide right-hand turn attempting to keep high on the slope, and avoid a depression on the steeply sloping terrain. He wrote that when the tailwheel started to slide downhill, he added power to increase rudder authority, and shallowed the right turn, hoping to avoid a depression. He reported that the airplane crossed over the depression, and upon "touching down on the far side" the right main landing gear collapsed, and the right wing struck the snow. The pilot reported that the right wing and forward fuselage sustained structural damage. According to the pilot, there were no known preaccident mechanical anomalies with the airplane.
Probable cause
The pilot's selection of unsuitable terrain for taxi after landing, which resulted in the collapse of the main landing gear and structural damage to the right wing and forward fuselage. A factor associated with the accident was the rough and uneven terrain.
Verbatim NTSB analysis and probable cause from the NTSB dataset
Sources
NTSB record ANC05TA058
- Event ID
- 20050425X00497
- Case number
- ANC05TA058
- 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: c3cf57fd2356d83c6249f7b415ac51d9dd2cbdff7c2ace2371f87ab67f98b867; retrieved 2026-09-21T19:02:45.085Z.