ANC11FA071 · Cessna U206G
Cessna U206G and Cessna 180B · Accident: midair collision while maneuvering
Event
- NTSB case
- ANC11FA071
- 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
- 4 · 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
Aircraft 1 · Cessna U206G
- 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
- N756MP
- Operator
- Earp Kevin W
- Onboard fatalities
- Unknown
- Route
- From Talkeetna, AKTo Talkeetna, 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
- 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 · Cessna 180B
- Aircraft type
- Cessna 180
- 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
- N5214E
- Operator
- Carlson Corey B
- Onboard fatalities
- Unknown
- Route
- From Lake Hood Seaplane Base (PALH), Anchorage, AKTo Talkeetna, 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
- 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
- Destroyed
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 float-equipped, high-wing airplanes, a Cessna 206 and a Cessna 180, collided in midair in day visual meteorological conditions near a remote lake, which was the destination for both airplanes. The Cessna 206 pilot stated that he was maneuvering for landing after completing a right 270-degree turn, which positioned the airplane for a left downwind approach for landing to the northeast. The Cessna 180 was flying northbound and presumably also on a left downwind approach for landing to the northeast. The airplanes were about 900 feet above ground level when the collision occurred. The pilot of the Cessna 206 said he saw the Cessna 180 approaching from the right, and he made an immediate climbing left turn just before the collision. The Cessna 180 descended vertically to the ground. The Cessna 206 continued to fly and landed safely with the outboard portion of the Cessna 180’s left wing entangled in its floats. Neither pilot was in communication with any air traffic control facility. The airplanes were operating in uncontrolled airspace.
The Cessna 206 pilot reported that he was monitoring 122.8 MHz, the common traffic advisory frequency (CTAF) for the area. A pilot-rated relative of the Cessna 180 pilot said the pilot monitored 122.9 MHz on previous flights, which was the MULTICOM frequency used for off-airport operations.
A review of FAA-approved CTAF radio frequencies used in the area revealed equivocal language regarding which CTAF radio frequency should be used. Additionally, due to a high concentration of aerodromes in the area, many of the frequency boundaries overlap.
Given the reports of the radio frequencies that were monitored by both pilots, it is likely that, had both pilots been announcing their intentions on the same frequency, both pilots would have had increased awareness of the presence of the other airplane.
Probable cause
The inadequate visual lookout and failure to see and avoid by the pilots of both airplanes while maneuvering to land, which resulted in a midair collision. Contributing to the accident was the lack of standardized, unequivocal procedures concerning common traffic advisory frequencies used in the area.
Verbatim NTSB analysis and probable cause from the NTSB dataset
Sources
NTSB record ANC11FA071
- Event ID
- 20110731X10847
- Case number
- ANC11FA071
- 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: ee37e1501fdd08886445d95d24b7b379e4a2efa33b6c0e9499e2e8dc179d7424; retrieved 2026-09-13T18:06:14.044Z.