ANC08LA088 · Cessna 150
Cessna 150 · Accident: collision during takeoff/landing
From Fairbanks International Airport (PAFA) to Fairbanks International Airport (PAFA)
Event
- NTSB case
- ANC08LA088
- 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 150
- Aircraft type
- Cessna 150
- 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
- N22563
- Operator
- Michael Davis
- Onboard fatalities
- Unknown
- Route
- From Fairbanks International Airport (PAFA), Fairbanks, AKTo Fairbanks International Airport (PAFA), Fairbanks, 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
- Takeoff
- Defining eventThe 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
- Collision during takeoff/landing
- 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
- Personnel issues › Action/decision
Approximate · Coordinates from the NTSB case API, which marks them as estimated or does not say; no uncertainty radius is established.
NTSB narrative
The pilot was departing from a sand bar in a tricycle gear-equipped airplane at dusk. During the takeoff run, he said the airplane was slow to accelerate due to loose gravel/sand, so he aborted the takeoff. A second attempt to takeoff produced similar results, and the pilot again aborted the takeoff. He then positioned the airplane onto an area of grass, and attempted a third takeoff run. The airplane was rolling on grass and sand, and only accelerated to about 36 mph, so the pilot made a slight left turn to extend his takeoff area. The nose gear collided with an unseen ditch, and collapsed rearward. The airplane received structural damage to the left wing rear spar cap, and a fuselage bulkhead. The pilot reported that there was no mechanical malfunction of the airplane.
Probable cause
The pilot's selection of unsuitable terrain for takeoff, which resulted in a collision with a ditch during the takeoff roll. Factors contributing to the accident were low light conditions at dusk, and soft terrain.
Verbatim NTSB analysis and probable cause from the NTSB dataset
Sources
NTSB record ANC08LA088
- Event ID
- 20080731X01136
- Case number
- ANC08LA088
- Dataset
- full-current
- Source SHA-256
- 5cf380f0061817c0331a6b2d8cc7e0ee3a79bea469a1001dc5c10e56f35f5ab3
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: ba31979bd6ddcbdfe6f0c392f9a3f175c5c0b2e61d0f49e324af26ff43b18c87; retrieved 2026-09-15T09:57:57.065Z.