GAA19CA521 · Piper PA18 AS125
Piper PA18 AS125 · Accident: abnormal runway contact during takeoff
From Wolf Lake Airport (4AK6) to Tyonek, AK
Narrative check · The NTSB narrative appears to contradict this record's departure or destination. Values are shown as recorded, not corrected; compare with the narrative.
Event
- NTSB case
- GAA19CA521
- 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
Piper PA18 AS125
- Aircraft type
- Piper PA18
- 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
- N655HE
- Operator
- Unknown
- Onboard fatalities
- Unknown
- Route Possible conflict
- From Wolf Lake Airport (4AK6), Palmer, AKTo Tyonek, AK
- Aircraft age
- About 67 years (built 1952)
- 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
- 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
- Abnormal runway contact
- 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 of the tailwheel- and tundra tire-equipped airplane reported that, during takeoff from an off-airport field, the airplane climbed to about 15 to 20 ft above ground level but then began to descend. He reported that a wind gust "pushed" the airplane down. He then verified that the engine was at full power and attempted to climb, but the left wheel struck the ground, and the airplane then veered left and came to rest in a ditch.
The airplane sustained substantial damage to the fuselage and both wings.
The pilot reported that there were no preaccident mechanical failures or malfunctions with the airplane that would have precluded normal operation.
The pilot reported that the wind was light and variable, gusting to between 8 and 10 knots.
The pilot added that, when the airplane encountered the wind gust, the notch of flaps he was using "dropped out." After verifying that the engine was at full power, he attempted to "grab [the] notch of flaps but [he] wasn't fast enough."
Probable cause
The pilot's failure to maintain an adequate climb rate during takeoff in gusting wind conditions, which resulted in an uncontrolled descent.
Verbatim NTSB analysis and probable cause from the NTSB dataset
Sources
NTSB record GAA19CA521
- Event ID
- 20190903X14713
- Case number
- GAA19CA521
- 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. Values present in the bulk record are kept.
- The date is the local date; the NTSB stores the UTC date 2019-09-02.
- API snapshot SHA-256: 59470b028f451e0964f0900c476216425b10d42eef0c03e8cc8cdc4162c3de28; retrieved 2026-09-16T09:57:04.303Z.