Piper PA-12 N2899M

Summary

On 4 September 2004 at about 21:00 local time, a Piper PA-12 registered N2899M was involved in an accident near Koliganek, Alaska, United States. 2 people were on board and 2 died. The aircraft was destroyed. The NTSB has published a probable cause for this accident; it is quoted in full below.

Date

4 September 2004 at 21:00

Classification

Accident

Location

Koliganek, Alaska, United States

Coordinates

59.9125, -157.0125

Aircraft

Piper PA-12

Registration

N2899M

Category

Airplane

Engines

1

Operator

Not recorded

Operating rule

Part 91: General Aviation

Purpose of flight

Personal

Phase of flight

Not recorded

Route

Iliamna → Koliganek

Aircraft damage

Destroyed

Weather

VMC

Light

Day

NTSB number

ANC04FA102

2 people died.

The pilot's failure to maintain adequate airspeed while on approach to land, which resulted in an inadvertent stall and an uncontrolled descent.

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

Read the full NTSB narrative

The commercial pilot and one passenger departed on a cross-country personal flight in a tundra tire-equipped airplane to go hunting. According to a friend, prior to departure, the pilot added fuel to both of the airplane's 19-gallon wing fuel tanks, and filled three containers with a total of 15 gallons of fuel. He placed the fuel containers in the rear cargo compartment, along with a tent, rifles, ammunition, a cook stove, and other camping items. The pilot-rated passenger's most recent third-class medical certificate listed his weight as 245 lbs. Following the accident, a passing pilot noted a plume of smoke and located the accident airplane nose down in the tundra, fully engulfed in fire. The airplane wreckage came to rest in a near vertical attitude, about one-quarter of a mile from a slightly elevated plateau located to the northwest of the accident site, commonly used as a landing site by pilots with tundra-tire equipped airplanes. Postaccident investigation revealed that the estimated gross weight of the airplane at takeoff was 1,912 pounds, 162 pounds in excess of the airplane's maximum takeoff gross weight. Due to extensive fire damage, the airplane's weight and center of gravity at the time of the accident could not be determined. Examination of the airplane revealed no evidence of any preimpact mechanical anomalies.

Quoted verbatim from the NTSB record.