Primary finding
Probable cause
The pilot's selection of unsuitable terrain. Factors related to the accident were: the submerged sand bar and the pilot's excessive taxispeed.
Investigator assessment
Analysis narrative
The floatplane pilot was on a positioning flight to meet fishermen and transport them to a different location. After landing on a river, the pilot was step taxiing into a side channel that was used to load and offload passengers. He stated that as the floatplane was coming off-the-step (slowing), it hit a submerged sandbar that could not be seen and nosed over.
Source record
Factual narrative
On July 2, 1993, at 1000 Alaska daylight time, a float equipped Cessna 206 airplane, N1801Q, registered to Alaska Bush Carriers, Inc. of Anchorage, Alaska, and operated by the pilot in command, nosed over while taxiing from a landing at the confluence of Lake Creek and the Yetna River, approximately 10 miles southeast of Skwentna, Alaska. The commercial certificated pilot in command, the sole occupant, was not injured and the airplane sustained substantial damage. The positioning flight, operating under 14 CFR Part 91, last departed the Lake Hood Seaplane Base at approximately 0930 and the destination was the accident site. A company flight plan was filed and visual meteorological conditions prevailed. During a telephone interview, the pilot in command told the NTSB investigator in charge that just after coming off of the step from a water landing, the airplane collided with a sandbar and nosed over. The pilot reported that the landing was performed to pick up a group of sport fishermen. -