ANC13FA001 · Grumman G-44
Fresh Water Adventures Grumman G-44 · Accident while maneuvering
From Dillingham, AK to Tikchik Lake, AK
Event
- NTSB case
- ANC13FA001
- 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
- 1 · 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
Grumman G-44
- Aircraft type
- Grumman G-44
- 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
- N139F
- Operator
- Fresh Water Adventures
- Onboard fatalities
- Unknown
- Route
- From Dillingham, AKTo Tikchik Lake, 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
- Miscellaneous/other
- 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 from the NTSB case API, which marks them as estimated or does not say; no uncertainty radius is established.
NTSB narrative
The pilot of the twin-engine seaplane was en route to a remote lake to pick up passengers. A passenger who was awaiting pickup witnessed the accident and said that when the airplane arrived in the area, it made multiple passes over the lake and island where he was waiting. After the third pass, the airplane came into view very low over the water. The airplane banked to the left, and the left wing float struck the water. The airplane veered sharply to the left, bounced, and cartwheeled three times. The airplane came to rest, partially submerged, with its high-mounted wings level with the surface of the water. The witness was unable to reach the airplane due to the icy water, and the airplane subsequently sank in the lake and was not recovered. The witness did not see the pilot.
The witness reported that the weather conditions at the time of the accident consisted of calm wind, low clouds, light rain, and fog restricting the visibility. He further described the water as glassy. It is likely that, due to visibility and water conditions, the pilot misjudged the height above the surface of the lake during a low pass, resulting in the left wing float inadvertently contacting the surface of the lake.
Probable cause
The pilot's decision to make multiple low passes over the glassy surface water, which resulted in an impact with the surface of the lake.
Verbatim NTSB analysis and probable cause from the NTSB dataset
Sources
NTSB record ANC13FA001
- Event ID
- 20121007X33859
- Case number
- ANC13FA001
- 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 2012-10-08.
- API snapshot SHA-256: f10edd4b770b7d260009e610305105135e06a7e23122e2dd8991f0854e5b7c41; retrieved 2026-09-14T15:45:42.362Z.