ANC11FA062 · Cessna U206
Cessna U206 and Lake Clark Air Piper PA-31-350 · Accident: midair collision en route
Event
- NTSB case
- ANC11FA062
- 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
- Charter & commuter
- 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
Aircraft 1 · Cessna U206
- Aircraft type
- Cessna 206
- 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
- N2186F
- Operator
- Creamer Donald G JR · private individual
- Onboard fatalities
- Unknown
- Route
- From Lake Hood Seaplane Base (LHD), Anchorage, AKTo Brooks Camp, 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
- 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
- Midair collision
- DamageDestroyed: beyond practical repair. Substantial: damage that affects the structure, performance or handling and normally needs major repair. Minor: less than that. Glossary
- Minor
Aircraft 2 · Piper PA-31-350
- Aircraft type
- Piper PA-31
- 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
- N76RA
- Operator
- Lake Clark Air
- Onboard fatalities
- Unknown
- Route
- From Kokhanok Airport (9K2), Kokhanok, AKTo Merrill Field (MRI), Anchorage, 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 135: Air Taxi & Commuter
- 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
- 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
- Midair collision
- 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 › Psychological
Approximate · Coordinates from the NTSB case API, which marks them as estimated or does not say; no uncertainty radius is established.
NTSB narrative
Two airplanes, a Cessna and a Piper, collided midair in a mountain pass while traveling in opposite directions. The pass is a river valley, about 1/2-mile wide, with the floor about 1,000 feet mean sea level (msl), between mountains in excess of 5,000 feet msl. Neither pilot saw the other airplane in time to take evasive action. Both airplanes landed safely after the collision. The airplanes were operating in visual flight rules meteorological conditions, in uncontrolled airspace at about 2,300 feet msl, without any air traffic control services. The westbound Cessna sustained minor damage to its left float and the eastbound Piper sustained substantial damage to its vertical stabilizer and rudder.
The Cessna pilot reported that he was monitoring the common traffic advisory frequency (CTAF) for the pass and making position reports. He saw the opposing airplane pass under his left front and heard a loud “thump.” The Cessna was equipped with wingtip- and tail-mounted strobe anticollision lights, which were operating at the time of collision.
The Piper pilot reported that when he spotted the Cessna floatplane he did not have time to take evasive action. He was not monitoring the CTAF, and the airplane he was flying had no anticollision wingtip strobes or any forward-facing lights.
A local Federal Aviation Administration publication contains a graphic representation of the pass, and includes remote communications outlets, weather cameras, reference points, and a CTAF for the pass.
Probable cause
The pilot’s failure to see and avoid the approaching airplane, which did not have any forward-facing lights.
Verbatim NTSB analysis and probable cause from the NTSB dataset
Sources
NTSB record ANC11FA062
- Event ID
- 20110711X41528
- Case number
- ANC11FA062
- 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: dab878cc06399c1a163a0db0d08266a182b576aea3e27ef04e495fcf1245a53a; retrieved 2026-09-13T18:19:48.154Z.