ANC17LA034 · Cessna 180
Cessna 180 · Accident: fuel related on approach
From Lake Hood Seaplane Base (LHD) to Lake Hood Seaplane Base (LHD)
Event
- NTSB case
- ANC17LA034
- 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
- 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
Cessna 180
- 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
- N2429C
- Operator
- Unknown
- Onboard fatalities
- Unknown
- Route
- From Lake Hood Seaplane Base (LHD), Anchorage, AKTo Lake Hood Seaplane Base (LHD), Anchorage, AK
- Aircraft age
- About 63 years (built 1954)
- 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
- Approach
- 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
- Fuel related
- 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 › Fluids/miscellaneous hardware
Approximate · Coordinates as recorded by the NTSB; no uncertainty radius is established.
NTSB narrative
The pilot reported that, shortly after takeoff from a seaplane base in the float-equipped airplane, the flap handle would not move, likely due to the headset cord wrapped around the flap handle base, so he maneuvered the airplane to the right downwind to return to land. The engine subsequently lost all power and the pilot performed a forced landing onto a residential street. The airplane sustained substantial damage after impacting a tree, a light pole, and multiple houses.
A postaccident examination of the engine and fuel system revealed that the fuel tanks were almost full, and fuel was present in the fuel lines with the exception of the line from the fuel flow transducer to the fuel manifold. The manifold itself contained only residual fuel. No leaks or debris in the fuel system were observed. The fuel selector was in the “off” position at the scene of the accident, but the pilot stated that he turned it from “both” to “off” after the accident to prevent fuel leaks and fire. The engine test run revealed no anomalies that would have precluded normal operation. Given the lack of fuel in the lines to the manifold and in the manifold, it is likely that the total loss of engine power was the result of fuel starvation during the flight; however, the reason for the fuel starvation could not be determined.
Probable cause
A total loss of engine power due to fuel starvation for undetermined reasons.
Verbatim NTSB analysis and probable cause from the NTSB dataset
Sources
NTSB record ANC17LA034
- Event ID
- 20170710X71845
- Case number
- ANC17LA034
- 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, cause areas. 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: db52fc900e70db5282cb03e74f531c75568307732dcfb0b594455e8a14b0c48e; retrieved 2026-09-16T05:31:32.014Z.