ANC10CA096 · Piper PA-18-150
Piper PA-18-150 · Accident: low altitude operation/event while maneuvering
From Tok Junction Airport (PFTO) to Tok Junction Airport (PFTO)
Event
- NTSB case
- ANC10CA096
- 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
Piper PA-18-150
- Aircraft type
- Piper PA-18
- 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
- N83395
- Operator
- Jorgensen Spike C
- Onboard fatalities
- Unknown
- Route
- From Tok Junction Airport (PFTO), Tok Junction, AKTo Tok Junction Airport (PFTO), Tok Junction, 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 · low-altitude flying
- 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
- Low altitude operation/event
- 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 as recorded by the NTSB; no uncertainty radius is established.
NTSB narrative
The private pilot reported he and the sole passenger were on a personal Title 14 CFR Part 91 flight en route to a hunting site. While maneuvering at a low altitude to assess weather conditions and determine the viability of flying through a pass, he said he encountered turbulence and a strong downdraft. He immediately added engine power to climb, but the downdraft pushed the airplane below the tops of tall Spruce trees. The pilot said he was unable to avoid the trees, and struck trees with the right wing and then the nose of the airplane. The airplane continued to fly, and he was able to return to his home airport, where the right main landing gear collapsed on landing. The airplane sustained substantial damage to the right wing and right horizontal stabilizer. The pilot stated that there were no preimpact mechanical problems with the airplane.
Probable cause
The pilot's decision to fly at a low altitude in terrain and weather conditions conducive to turbulence and downdrafts.
Verbatim NTSB analysis and probable cause from the NTSB dataset
Sources
NTSB record ANC10CA096
- Event ID
- 20100922X21812
- Case number
- ANC10CA096
- 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. Values present in the bulk record are kept.
- The date is the local date; the NTSB stores the UTC date 2010-09-09.
- API snapshot SHA-256: 9b89938ef65ad86cecede2dc9f9784b3baaefba23932bc29ea4b9d279ada055f; retrieved 2026-09-15T15:19:03.520Z.