GAA19CA563 · De Havilland BEAVER DHC 2
De Havilland BEAVER DHC 2 · Accident: loss of control on ground during takeoff
From Mountain Village, AK to Mountain Village, AK
Event
- NTSB case
- GAA19CA563
- 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 BEAVER DHC 2
- Aircraft type
- de Havilland BEAVER 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
- N77KZ
- Operator
- Unknown
- Onboard fatalities
- Unknown
- Route
- From Mountain Village, AKTo Mountain Village, AK
- Aircraft age
- About 64 years (built 1955)
- 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
- 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 control on ground
- 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
- Aircraft › Aircraft systems
- Personnel issues › Psychological
- Personnel issues › Task performance
Approximate · Coordinates as recorded by the NTSB; no uncertainty radius is established.
NTSB narrative
The pilot in the float-equipped airplane reported that he did not extend the flaps before he accelerated for takeoff from a lake. He added that, shortly after coming on step, he rolled the ailerons left and applied back pressure to the elevator to "become airborne." However, the airplane did not become airborne, and the floats subsequently impacted the shoreline. The airplane then bounced, skidded to a stop, impacted rising terrain, and came to rest upright.
The airplane sustained substantial damage to the left elevator.
The pilot reported that he had not maintained a sterile cockpit during takeoff and that he failed to complete the Before Takeoff checklist.
The pilot reported that there were no mechanical malfunctions or failures with the airplane that would have precluded normal operation.
Probable cause
The pilot's improper takeoff configuration due to distraction, which resulted in the airplane’s failure to become airborne and its subsequent collision with rising terrain. Contributing to the accident was the pilot's failure to use the Before Takeoff checklist.
Verbatim NTSB analysis and probable cause from the NTSB dataset
Sources
NTSB record GAA19CA563
- Event ID
- 20190922X23136
- Case number
- GAA19CA563
- 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: 5e790a117fcec0f81b60ffe44cbb6aa68117aaf18c567d7cc8bea70776fd0cff; retrieved 2026-09-16T10:11:26.747Z.