Piper PA-28-180 accident near Whittier, AK
On May 12, 2018, a Piper PA-28-180 (airplane) was involved in an accident near Whittier, AK. 1 person died. Damage to the aircraft: substantial.
- Date
- May 12, 2018
- Place
- Whittier, AK
- Aircraft
- Piper PA-28-180 · Airplane
- Injuries
- 1 fatal, 0 serious, 0 minor
- Damage
- Substantial
- Position
- 60.764°N, 148.716°W
- NTSB ID
- 20180513X93216
Official records · ANC18FA036
- Public docket: reports, statements and exhibits from the investigation
NTSB summary
HISTORY OF FLIGHTOn May 12, 2018, about 0940 Alaska daylight time, a Piper Cherokee PA-28-180 airplane, N7061W, was substantially damaged when it was involved in an accident near Whittier, Alaska. The student pilot sustained fatal injuries. The airplane was operated as a Title 14 Code of Federal Regulations (CFR) Part 91 personal flight. A family member stated that the pilot was repositioning his airplane from Merrill Field Airport (MRI), Anchorage, Alaska, to Valdez Pioneer Field Airport (VDZ), Valdez, Alaska, where he worked 2 weeks each month. The route comprised remote inland fjords, coastal waterways, and steep mountainous terrain, which required flight through Portage Pass. (Portage Pass is highly-traveled, east-west pass between Turnagain Arm and the Prince William Sound. It is about 1/2-mile wide and bounded by a 4,660-ft peak to the north and a 6,100-ft peak to the south.) According to Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) air traffic control records, the airplane departed MRI at 0859 and proceeded to the Turnagain Arm waterway, which is a narrow waterway between the Kenai Mountains and the Chugach Mountains, where the pilot reported his position at Bird Creek at 0916. No further radio communications were received from the pilot. A review of data from a recovered Garmin Aera 500 device onboard the airplane revealed that the pilot flew southeast along Turnagain Arm. About 0929, the last data point was recorded about 5 miles from the accident site and indicated the airplane at 1,352 ft mean sea level (msl) at 95 knots ground speed, heading approximately southeast. (S
Probable cause
The student pilot's decision to depart and continue on a solo cross-country flight through mountainous terrain in marginal visual flight rules conditions, which resulted in controlled flight into terrain.
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Browse: Alaska · Piper aircraft
Source: NTSB aviation accident database (US government, public domain). Findings may be preliminary or later revised by the NTSB. Not a complete global record.
