RDM Pilot/Guide de Havilland DHC-2 accident
de Havilland DHC-2 · Accident: collision during takeoff/landing
From Ketchikan Harbor Seaplane Base (5KE) to Ketchikan, AK
Event
- NTSB case
- ANC17LA032
- 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
- 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
- N930TG
- Operator
- RDM Pilot/Guide
- Onboard fatalities
- Unknown
- Route
- From Ketchikan Harbor Seaplane Base (5KE), Ketchikan, AKTo Ketchikan, AK
- Aircraft age
- About 61 years (built 1956)
- 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
- Takeoff · rejected takeoff
- 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
- Collision during takeoff/landing
- 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 oper/perf/capability
- Personnel issues › Task performance
Approximate · Coordinates as recorded by the NTSB; no uncertainty radius is established.
NTSB narrative
The pilot landed the float-equipped airplane at a remote mountain lake as part of a sightseeing tour flight. During the subsequent takeoff, the pilot realized that the airplane was not going to clear trees in the intended direction of departure. The pilot decided to lower the nose and turn 180° to remain over the lake while continuing to climb; however, during the turn, the airplane impacted the water and began to sink. All of the occupants egressed and swam to shore. The operator reported no preimpact mechanical failures or malfunctions with the airframe and engine that would have precluded normal operation of the airplane. Another airplane of the same make and model as the accident airplane successfully departed the lake shortly after the accident. Given the lack of mechanical malfunctions with the accident airplane and the fact that the other airplane performed a successful takeoff, it is likely that the accident pilot misjudged the required departure distance and altitude needed to safely depart the lake, then failed to maintain sufficient clearance from the water during the turn to avoid terrain.
Probable cause
The pilot's misjudgment of the takeoff distance needed to depart the lake, and his subsequent failure to maintain clearance from the water during a turn to avoid terrain, which resulted in impact with water.
Verbatim NTSB analysis and probable cause from the NTSB dataset
Sources
NTSB record ANC17LA032
- Event ID
- 20170620X12549
- Case number
- ANC17LA032
- 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: c66f0bfcd6830c26006785342d0d351674398d4650f4b57b432723ee9436f53d; retrieved 2026-09-16T05:25:52.797Z.