Cessna 207A N96AK

Summary

On 9 June 1998 at about 20:31 local time, a Cessna 207A registered N96AK was involved in an accident near Juneau, Alaska, United States. 5 people were on board and nobody was injured. The aircraft was substantially damaged. The NTSB has published a probable cause for this accident; it is quoted in full below.

Date

9 June 1998 at 20:31

Classification

Accident

Location

Juneau, Alaska, United States

Coordinates

58.5792, -134.7691

Aircraft

Cessna 207A

Registration

N96AK

Category

Airplane

Engines

1

Operator

Not recorded

Operating rule

Part 135: Air Taxi & Commuter

Purpose of flight

Unknown

Phase of flight

Not recorded

Route

Unknown → Hoonah

Aircraft damage

Substantial

Weather

VMC

Light

Day

NTSB number

ANC98FA069

Nobody was injured.

The failure of company maintenance personnel to properly install a wire bundle clamp; chafing, electrical arcing, and subsequent leaking of a fuel line, which resulted in an in-flight fire. A factor associated with the accident was company maintenance personnel's failure to discover a missing clamp during a 100 hour inspection.

Quoted verbatim from the NTSB record. This site does not paraphrase or interpret it.

Read the full NTSB narrative

The certificated commercial pilot, and four passengers, departed in a single-engine airplane on a scheduled commuter flight over terrain consisting of open water and wooded islands. Thirteen minutes later during a climb, the pilot noted smoke and heat coming from beneath the mid-cabin floor, and declared an emergency, reporting a fire in the airplane. The pilot ditched the airplane in shallow water along a shoreline of a small island. The fire, which was located under the right front seat between the cabin floor and the lower airplane belly skin, was self-extinguished during the ditching. Post-accident examination disclosed a fuel line, a bundled set of electrical wires, and a Loran antenna cable, had all been routed adjacent to each other under the cabin floor, contrary to FAA recommended methodology. The Loran antenna cable had been installed 10 years prior to the accident. Two small holes, consistent with arcing, were found in the fuel line. Evidence of arcing was found on one of the electrical wires. Plastic tie wraps attached the wire/antenna bundle to plastic clamps that were each secured to fuselage formers under the floor by bolts or screws. One clamp, adjacent to the holes found in the fuel line, was missing from its attach point. A screw and a small melted portion of a plastic tie wrap were found adjacent to each other in the fuselage belly, beneath the cabin floor. An annual inspection was accomplished six months before the accident. A 100-hour inspection was completed 11 days before the accident. Each company inspection checklist includes an inspection of the internal structure of the fuselage, and an inspection of antenna cables. The FAA recommended technique for attaching clamps to structure is the use of bolts with locknuts, or self-locking nuts.

Quoted verbatim from the NTSB record.