ANC08CA020 · Cessna 170B
Cessna 170B · Accident: in flight encounter with weather en route
From McGrath Airport (PAMC) to Nikolai Airport (PAFS)
Event
- NTSB case
- ANC08CA020
- 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
Cessna 170B
- Aircraft type
- Cessna 170
- 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
- N170BP
- Operator
- Richard Anselment
- Onboard fatalities
- Unknown
- Route
- From McGrath Airport (PAMC), Mcgrath, AKTo Nikolai Airport (PAFS), Nikolai, 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
- En route · cruise
- 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
- In flight encounter with weather
- 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
- 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
- Substantial
Cause areas
- Pilot in command › Flight into adverse weather, continued
Approximate · Coordinates from the NTSB case API, which marks them as estimated or does not say; no uncertainty radius is established.
NTSB narrative
The commercial certificated pilot was conducting a solo cross-country flight in a tailwheel-equipped airplane under Title 14, CFR Part 91, when the accident occurred. He reported that he received a special VFR clearance at the departure airport, and as soon as he cleared class E airspace, the airplane started to accumulate rime ice on the wings' leading edges and windshield. He reported that three-quarters of the way to his destination the windshield was suddenly covered with rime ice, and that his destination was the closest airport. At the destination airport, he said the visibility was one-half to one mile in fog and freezing drizzle. On short final he reported that visibility was deteriorating, and he elected to go-around. He said the throttle did not respond, the engine lost power, and the airplane descended into trees. The pilot attributed the engine losing power to a combination of carburetor and induction icing. The pilot reported that there were no known mechanical problems with the airplane prior to the accident. He said during the accident the airplane received damage to the right wing and lift-strut, right aileron, and right elevator. Due to the remote location, the airplane was not examined by the National Transportation Safety Board.
Probable cause
The pilot's continued flight into adverse weather (icing conditions), which resulted in a loss of engine power during a go-around. Factors contributing to the accident were icing conditions, and carburetor/induction icing.
Verbatim NTSB analysis and probable cause from the NTSB dataset
Sources
NTSB record ANC08CA020
- Event ID
- 20080116X00060
- Case number
- ANC08CA020
- 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: 3135b835bc2a8eb2b9e89d18e7ce0e8e978d1664dfafdbeba9feb264d774a7fe; retrieved 2026-09-22T03:16:09.151Z.