Cessna 207 N207DG

Summary

On 15 September 2002 at about 23:15 local time, a Cessna 207 registered N207DG, operated by 40 Mile Air Ltd., was involved in an accident near Circle, Alaska, United States. 3 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

15 September 2002 at 23:15

Classification

Accident

Location

Circle, Alaska, United States

Nearest airport

Circle City (PACR)

Coordinates

65.8306, -144.0758

Aircraft

Cessna 207

Registration

N207DG

Category

Airplane

Engines

1

Operator

40 Mile Air Ltd.

Operating rule

Part 135: Air Taxi & Commuter

Phase of flight

Not recorded

Route

Circle → Tok

Aircraft damage

Substantial

Weather

VMC

Light

Day

NTSB number

ANC02LA128

Nobody was injured.

The pilot's inadequate wind evaluation during takeoff resulting in a downwind takeoff and subsequent overrun during an aborted takeoff. Factors in the accident were a tailwind and the pilot's failure to verify the selected flap setting.

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

Read the full NTSB narrative

The commercial certificated pilot was departing runway 15 at an airport with a gravel surface runway that is 3,000 feet long by 60 feet wide. About 1,800 feet after beginning the takeoff run, about 65 knots indicated airspeed, the pilot raised the nose for lift-off, but the airplane did not become airborne. He then aborted the takeoff, and applied the brakes, but the airplane went off the end of the runway into an area of marshy tussock grass. The nose gear strut collapsed, and the airplane came to rest about 75 feet beyond the departure end of the runway. Following the accident, the pilot reported that as he left the airplane to call his company operations, he noticed the wind was favoring runway 33. When he returned to the airplane, he reported the wind was again favoring runway 15. The pilot also indicated that prior to takeoff, he selected 10 degrees of flaps. Following the accident, he noticed the flaps were only deployed to about 3 or 4 degrees of travel, even though the flap indicator was still set at 10 degrees. The pilot said he moved the flap lever several times up and down, but was only able to achieve 10 degrees of flap deployment by moving the flap lever to a 20 degree setting, before selecting a 10 degree setting. In the pilot's written report to the NTSB, he noted the airplane did not have any mechanical malfunction. In the safety recommendation portion of the report, the pilot noted that he could have visually verified the flap setting before takeoff.

Quoted verbatim from the NTSB record.