ANC09FA052 · Harden RV-7
Harden RV-7 · Accident: controlled flight into terrain/object (CFIT) while maneuvering
From Edward G. Pitka Sr Airport (GAL) to Nome Airport (OME)
Event
- NTSB case
- ANC09FA052
- 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
- 2 · 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
- Instrument Meteorological Cond
Harden RV-7
- Aircraft type
- Harden RV-7
- 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
- N303BK
- Operator
- Harden Bruce D R · private individual
- Onboard fatalities
- Unknown
- Route
- From Edward G. Pitka Sr Airport (GAL), Galena, AKTo Nome Airport (OME), Nome, 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
- Maneuvering
- 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
- Controlled flight into terrain/object (CFIT)
- 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
- Personnel issues › Experience/knowledge
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 departed on a visual flight rules cross-country flight on a route that passed near a small coastal town and uncontrolled airport. Witnesses at the coastal town reported low clouds, fog, and poor visibility in the area just before the accident. They also saw and heard an airplane flying very low over their town, which was at a lower elevation than the airport. One witness estimated that the airplane was only a few feet above power lines, or about 30 feet above ground level. The witnesses noted that the airplane flew over the airport and village twice and, during the last pass, turned north toward the top of a hill and the crash site. They indicated that the engine sound was steady.
Data from a global positioning system unit found in the wreckage depicted the airplane's track from departure to the accident site. Near the accident airport, the track was along a meandering path that crossed itself and had several course reversals. Images from weather cameras at the accident airport indicated that the visibility was less than 1 mile. The pilot did not have an instrument rating. No record was found that the pilot had received a weather briefing prior to the flight. A postaccident inspection of the airplane disclosed no evidence of any preaccident mechanical anomalies.
Given the poor weather conditions, witness reports, the meandering flight path near the airport, the pilot's lack of an instrument rating, and the absence of any mechanical problems with the airplane, it is likely the pilot flew into instrument meteorological weather conditions while attempting to locate the runway and collided with rising terrain near the airport.
Probable cause
The pilot's continued visual flight into instrument meteorological conditions, which resulted in an in-flight collision with terrain.
Verbatim NTSB analysis and probable cause from the NTSB dataset
Sources
NTSB record ANC09FA052
- Event ID
- 20090611X05717
- Case number
- ANC09FA052
- 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: local date, investigation status, coordinates. Values present in the bulk record are kept.
- The date is the local date; the NTSB stores the UTC date 2009-06-10.
- API snapshot SHA-256: 81a33d9bba016ddb98dce7378ce77f29b9f43e8bd9296ffd699caa0cbdba8511; retrieved 2026-09-13T20:11:38.982Z.