Rust Properties de Havilland DHC-2 MK. I(L20A) accident
de Havilland DHC-2 MK. I(L20A) · Accident: loss of control on ground during landing
From KahiltnaGlacier, AK to Talkeetna Airport (PATK)
Narrative check · The NTSB narrative appears to contradict this record's location. Values are shown as recorded, not corrected; compare with the narrative.
Event
- NTSB case
- ANC12CA041
- 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
de Havilland DHC-2 MK. I(L20A)
- Aircraft type
- de Havilland DHC-2
- 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
- N323KT
- Operator
- Rust Properties
- Onboard fatalities
- Unknown
- Route
- From KahiltnaGlacier, AKTo Talkeetna Airport (PATK), 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 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
- Landing · landing roll
- 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
- Loss of control on ground
- 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
- Aircraft › Aircraft systems
- Personnel issues › Action/decision
- Personnel issues › Task performance
Approximate · Estimated position: the centre of Talkeetna, AK, the place the record names. Not the accident site.
NTSB narrative
The pilot landed at a base camp on a glacier. To prevent the airplane from sliding, he raised the wheel skis and set the parking brake. Upon departure, he lowered the skis but forgot to release the parking brake. Upon touchdown on a hard surfaced runway, the airplane came to an abrupt stop and nosed down, then settled back on the tailwheel. The horizontal stabilizer sustained substantial damage. The pilot indicated there were no preaccident mechanical anomalies with the airplane. He said the accident could have been prevented if he had ensured that the parking brake was not set on the glacier, which would have prevented an abrupt stop when he later landed on wheels.
Probable cause
The pilot inadvertently landed with the parking brake set.
Verbatim NTSB analysis and probable cause from the NTSB dataset
Sources
NTSB record ANC12CA041
- Event ID
- 20120523X90729
- Case number
- ANC12CA041
- 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. 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: 91cea61a3f03f7b500bc97e7c6f51cf5e3f425856486aa6fdb39db48169cc5c4; retrieved 2026-09-15T18:13:56.629Z.