De Havilland BEAVER DHC-2 MK.1 N63562

Summary

On 30 June 2012 at about 22:00 local time, a De Havilland BEAVER DHC-2 MK.1 registered N63562, operated by Toby Ashley, was involved in an accident near Bettles, Alaska, United States. One person was 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

30 June 2012 at 22:00

Classification

Accident

Location

Bettles, Alaska, United States

Coordinates

67.2402, -161.1906

Aircraft

De Havilland BEAVER DHC-2 MK.1

Registration

N63562

Category

Airplane

Engines

1

Operator

Toby Ashley

Operating rule

Part 91: General Aviation

Purpose of flight

Personal

Phase of flight

Not recorded

Route

Unknown → Bettles

Aircraft damage

Substantial

Weather

VMC

Light

Day

NTSB number

ANC12LA061

Nobody was injured.

The pilot’s failure to properly judge the airplane’s distance and altitude from the landing location during the final approach, which resulted in an undershoot and a nose over.

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

Read the full NTSB narrative

According to the pilot, he parked his tailwheel-equipped airplane on a remote gravel bar adjacent to a river, and, during the night, the rising water submerged the airplane’s main wheels and empennage. The pilot reported that, the following morning, while trying to taxi the airplane from the river, “the tires were lurching, and the tail was underwater.” He said that he increased the engine power to lift the tail and applied heavy braking action to control the airplane as he taxied downstream and downwind. The airplane then lurched forward again, and the tail lifted as the propeller struck the water, and the airplane nosed over. Photographs showed that the airplane was about 20 feet from the shore and positioned on a heading aligned with the estimated approach path for landing on the adjacent gravel bar. Evidence of minimal damage on the propeller blades is consistent with a low engine-power setting at the time of the nose over. The main landing gear wheel tracks that led up to the wreckage were visible in the gravel beneath the shallow river water and that the tracks came from a direction consistent with an approach to the gravel bar from over the river. All of the physical evidence is consistent with the airplane having touched down in the water short of the desired touchdown point during an attempted landing on the gravel bar.

Quoted verbatim from the NTSB record.