ANC13FA058 · Beech 95-B55
Beech 95-B55 · Accident: controlled flight into terrain/object (CFIT) while maneuvering
From Fairbanks International Airport (PAFA) to Homer, AK
Event
- NTSB case
- ANC13FA058
- 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
- 3 · 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
- Instrument Meteorological Cond
Beech 95-B55
- Aircraft type
- Beechcraft 55
- 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
- N5JG
- Operator
- Dale W. Hemman · private individual
- Onboard fatalities
- Unknown
- Route
- From Fairbanks International Airport (PAFA), Fairbanks, AKTo Homer, 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
- Controlled flight into terrain/object (CFIT)
- 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 › Action/decision
Approximate · Coordinates as recorded by the NTSB; no uncertainty radius is established.
NTSB narrative
The accident pilot was the organizer of 18 airplanes participating in a group sight-seeing tour of remote Alaskan locations. The 18 airplanes were divided into two groups, and each group had a leader. The accident airplane served as a separate leader for the entire group and departed about 10 minutes before the other two groups to make arrangements at their next destination and to check weather along their intended route of flight, which took them through a mountain pass.
One of the group leader pilots reported that, as he approached the mountain pass, weather conditions began to deteriorate with low clouds, haze, and restricted visibility. He subsequently received a radio broadcast from another airplane in the area, which indicated that the mountain pass was not open due to poor weather conditions, so he chose to land his group at a nearby airport. The other group leader pilot stated that, after hearing that the first group was going to land at the nearby airport, he also chose to land his group there.
The accident airplane's fragmented wreckage was discovered near the summit of the mountain pass in an area of brush and tundra-covered terrain at an elevation of about 2,370 feet mean sea level near the area where the second group leader turned around. A pilot-rated witness standing on the ground about the time of the accident stated that he observed an airplane flying in and out of the clouds at an altitude of about 400 feet above ground level (agl). Weather at the time of the accident was broken clouds about 250 to 300 feet agl, overcast clouds about 350 feet agl, with thin wispy fog hanging in the trees.
Postaccident examination of the airframe and engines revealed no mechanical malfunctions or anomalies that would have precluded normal operation. Given the lack of mechanical anomalies, the reported weather conditions, the two group leader pilot statements, and the witness statement, it is likely that the accident pilot continued visual flight into instrument meteorological conditions, which resulted in an in-flight collision with mountainous terrain.
Probable cause
The pilot’s continued visual flight into instrument meteorological conditions, which resulted in an in-flight collision with mountainous terrain.
Verbatim NTSB analysis and probable cause from the NTSB dataset
Sources
NTSB record ANC13FA058
- Event ID
- 20130628X95008
- Case number
- ANC13FA058
- 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: 70de36bd5b8fb0bff113fcafc867d5284fdffbc35c9febeaa5c44cd3aa46a962; retrieved 2026-09-14T15:59:54.850Z.