N7174KPiper PA-18 · 1951

On September 10, 2008, about 1630 Alaska daylight time, a Piper PA-18 airplane, N7174K, sustained substantial damage during an in-flight collision with terrain and postcrash fire, about 40 miles east of Talkeetna, Alaska. The airplane was being operated by the pilot as a visual flight rules (VFR), local other work use flight, in conjunction with his hunting guide business, under Title 14, CFR Part 91, when the accident occurred. The commercial pilot received fatal injuries, and the sole passenger received serious injuries. Visual meteorological conditions prevailed, and no flight plan was filed. The airplane departed the Talkeetna Airport, Talkeetna, about 1600.

The airplane was reported overdue on September 10, when it failed to return to Talkeetna for a second passenger. Weather and darkness precluded a search of the area until September 11. On September 11, searchers located the airplane's wreckage, and the deceased pilot. The search continued for the passenger, until he was located about 5 miles from the accident site, trying to find help.

During a telephone conversation with the National Transportation Safety Board (NTSB) investigator-in-charge (IIC) on September 12, the passenger said he and the pilot took off from the Talkeetna Airport looking for caribou to hunt, and a site to setup a hunting camp. He said they were about 40 miles east of Talkeetna, and started to circle a likely camp site. He said the airplane was in a left circling turn, and the turn became tighter, and the angle of bank became steeper. The passenger said at one point the angle of bank suddenly became very steep, and he heard the pilot say something like "Oh No!" over the intercom. He said he had been looking out the left side of the airplane, and the airplane was in a steep bank to the left. When he looked forward, he saw the ground. The passenger said the airplane's left wing struck the ground first, followed by the nose. He said the next thing he remembered was being outside the airplane, trying to put out the fire on himself, and then the pilot. He said his efforts to help the pilot, after extinguishing the fire, were in vain. He spent the night at the airplane, and when nobody came in the morning, he headed in the direction of a camp about 10 miles away. He said there were no problems with the airplane prior to the accident.

Attempts by the IIC to reach the accident site on September 16 and 19 were canceled due to weather, and due to approaching winter storms no further attempts to reach the site were made. The airplane has not been examined by the NTSB. The accident site is located on a ridge in steep mountainous terrain bounded on two sides by rivers/creeks. Aerial photographs of the airplane taken from a search aircraft while looking for the missing passenger, showed the airplane impacted in a steep descent. The impact site appeared small in diameter, with no discernible horizontal component. All of the airplane's major components appeared to be at the site. An examination of the airplane's logbooks showed an annual inspection was performed on April 1, 2008, and no mechanical anomalies were noted.

No personal pilot records were discovered for examination. According to FAA medical records, the latest application for an FAA medical certificate dated February 23, 2007, showed the pilot received an FAA third class medical certificate that date, and reported 2,000 hours of total flying experience. An autopsy performed by the Alaska State Medical Examiner showed the cause of death was blunt force trauma resulting from an airplane crash. Toxicological examination of tissue samples performed by the FAA Civil Aeromedical Institute (CAMI) in Oklahoma City, Oklahoma, were negative.