ANC24LA014 · Benjamin Pratt BEARHAWK PATROL
Benjamin Pratt BEARHAWK PATROL · Accident: fuel related en route
From Edward G. Pitka Sr Airport (GAL) to Edward G. Pitka Sr Airport (GAL)
Event
- NTSB case
- ANC24LA014
- 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
- Event fatalities
- Unknown
- 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
Benjamin Pratt BEARHAWK PATROL
- Aircraft type
- Benjamin Pratt BEARHAWK PATROL
- 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
- N406AK
- Operator
- Unknown
- Onboard fatalities
- Unknown
- Route
- From Edward G. Pitka Sr Airport (GAL), Galena, AKTo Edward G. Pitka Sr Airport (GAL), Galena, AK
- Aircraft age
- About 11 years (built 2013)
- 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
- En route · cruise
- 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 › Aircraft systems
- Environmental issues › Conditions/weather/phenomena
- Personnel issues › Action/decision
Approximate · Coordinates from the NTSB case API, not marked as estimated; no uncertainty radius is established.
NTSB narrative
The pilot reported that while enroute, flying below a 1000-foot ceiling in 2 miles of visibility and light snow, he encountered various instances of carburetor icing which were resolved using the periodic application of carburetor heat. However, later in the flight, he encountered carburetor icing that wasn’t clearing with the application of carburetor heat. The pilot elected to make an off-airport landing and while performing a descending 180° turn, maneuvering to land, he reported that the airplane’s engine lost all power. The pilot leveled the airplane’s wings partway through the turn and landed straight ahead, in a small clearing. The airplane overran the landing area and impacted a clump of trees which resulted in substantial damage to the wings. According to the Carburetor Icing Probability Chart (FAA SAIB CE-09-35), the atmospheric conditions at the time of the accident were conducive to carburetor icing at cruise power and glide power. According to FAA Advisory Circular 20-113, "To prevent accidents due to induction system icing, the pilot should regularly use [carburetor] heat under conditions known to be conducive to atmospheric icing and be alert at all times for indications of icing in the fuel system." The pilot reported that there were no preaccident mechanical failures or malfunctions with the airplane that would have precluded normal operation.
Probable cause
A loss of engine power as a result of carburetor ice. Contributing to the outcome was the pilot’s failure to effectively use carburetor heat in conditions conducive to the formation of carburetor ice.
Verbatim NTSB analysis and probable cause from the NTSB dataset
Sources
NTSB record ANC24LA014
- Event ID
- 20240220193817
- Case number
- ANC24LA014
- 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, coordinates, cause areas. Values present in the bulk record are kept.
- The date is the local date; the NTSB stores the UTC date 2024-02-19.
- API snapshot SHA-256: 1bff289de4d8b81f39e2c33869a1f98d25fed7ff10046d969c5b059e695726b1; retrieved 2026-09-16T18:31:27.591Z.