Northstar Aero Cessna 180K accident
Cessna 180K · Accident: loss of lift during initial climb
From Ambler, AK to Fairbanks International Airport (FAI)
Event
- NTSB case
- ANC18LA046
- 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
Cessna 180K
- 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
- N2957K
- Operator
- Northstar Aero
- Onboard fatalities
- Unknown
- Route
- From Ambler, AKTo Fairbanks International Airport (FAI), Fairbanks, AK
- Aircraft age
- About 38 years (built 1980)
- 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
- Initial climb
- 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 lift
- 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
- Environmental issues › Physical environment
- Personnel issues › Action/decision
Approximate · Coordinates as recorded by the NTSB; no uncertainty radius is established.
NTSB narrative
The airline transport pilot was conducting a tour flight with two passengers onboard and landed on a hilly sand dune. He reported that the wind increased by 10 to 20 knots over a 2-hour period. The pilot said that, after considering and reviewing several downhill departure routes, he selected a departure route that was into the wind. Just after a downhill takeoff, the headwind diminished, the airplane stopped climbing, and the stall warning horn sounded. The airplane subsequently collided with rising terrain, which resulted in substantial damage to the forward fuselage.
The pilot reported that there were no preaccident mechanical malfunctions or failures with the airplane that would have precluded normal operation. The pilot selected an unsuitable takeoff area with unfavorable wind conditions, which likely resulted in the airplane's inability to maintain a climb.
Probable cause
The pilot's selection of an unsuitable takeoff area with unfavorable wind conditions, which resulted in the airplane’s inability to maintain a climb.
Verbatim NTSB analysis and probable cause from the NTSB dataset
Sources
NTSB record ANC18LA046
- Event ID
- 20180618X32836
- Case number
- ANC18LA046
- 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: 702f4d75b2fd45c232f52e129f53a97500842fb2a8c816a5f0bcf20091ccc48a; retrieved 2026-09-16T07:33:11.704Z.