NTSB Identification: ANC15FA066
14 CFR Part 91: General Aviation
Accident occurred Saturday, August 22, 2015 in Kasilof, AK
Aircraft: CESSNA 180, registration: N3043E
Injuries: 2 Fatal.
This is preliminary information, subject to change, and may contain errors. Any errors in this report will be corrected when the final report has been completed. NTSB investigators either traveled in support of this investigation or conducted a significant amount of investigative work without any travel, and used data obtained from various sources to prepare this aircraft accident report.
On August 22, 2015, about 2020 Alaska daylight time, a wheel-equipped Cessna 180 airplane, N3043E, sustained substantial damage after impacting tree-covered terrain while maneuvering low level about 5 miles southwest of Kasilof, Alaska. The private pilot and sole passenger sustained fatal injuries. The airplane was registered to, and operated by, the pilot under the provisions of Title 14 Code of Federal Regulations (CFR) Part 91 as a personal flight. Visual meteorological conditions prevailed at the time of the accident, and no flight plan had been filed.
During an on-scene interview with the National Transportation Safety Board (NTSB) investigator-in-charge (IIC) on August 23, a witness that was standing on his deck that overlooked the ocean waters of the Cook Inlet, stated that he first saw the accident airplane flying low level, about 20 feet above the beach. He said that he began watching the airplane about 1 mile from his location, and as the airplane continued flying toward him, the engine sound appeared normal. He reported that when the airplane was directly in front of him, it pitched up to about 45 degrees and climbed to about 300 feet above the beach, and about 100 feet above the trees located on the bluff overlooking the Cook Inlet. He said that as the nose of the airplane began to lower, he heard a reduction in engine power, followed by a sound that was consistent with an engine misfiring. The airplane then descended into an area of tree-covered terrain at the top of the bluff, and it disappeared from view. Immediately after, a loud sound consistent with an impact was heard. The witness said that as he approached the site, about .1 mile from his previous location, a postimpact fire had already consumed a large portion of the wreckage, and firearms ammunition could be heard exploding from within the burning airplane.
A second witness, who could not see the airplane, said he heard an aircraft overhead about the time of the accident that was making noises consistent with an engine sputtering.
The NTSB IIC, along with an Anchorage Flight Standards District Office Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) aviation safety inspector reached the accident site on the morning of August 23. The airplane came to rest in an area of densely populated spruce trees and thick brush at an elevation of about 45 feet msl, on a heading of about 217 degrees. The postaccident fire incinerated the fuselage and left wing of the airplane.
The closest weather reporting facility is Soldotna Airport, Soldotna, Alaska, about 15 miles northeast of the accident site. At 2016, an aviation routine weather report (METAR) from the Soldotna Airport was reporting in part: Wind from 290 degrees at 8 knots; sky condition, clear; visibility, 10 statute miles; altimeter, 29.85 inHg.
A detailed wreckage and engine examination is pending. The airplane was equipped with a Continental Motors O-470 series engine.
FAA Flight Standards District Office: FAA Anchorage FSDO-03
Any witnesses should email witness@ntsb.gov, and any friends and family who want to contact investigators about the accident should email assistance@ntsb.gov.
Two Kasilof men died when their plane clipped some trees and crashed just beyond the Cook Inlet bluff Saturday night.
Investigators are trying to discover the cause of a plane crash Saturday night in Kasilof that killed two local men.
Pilot Brian Nolan, age 69, and 57-year-old Peter Lahndt, both of Kasilof, died when Nolan’s Cessna 180 crashed into a stand of trees about 150 feet from Cohoe Loop Road, just inland from the bluff over Cook Inlet near the mouth of the Kasilof River. The plane immediately burst into flames. The crash was not survivable, according to an investigator with the National Transportation Safety Board.
The plane went down around 8:11 p.m. Saturday at Mile 3.2 South Cohoe Loop Road, near Powder Keg Avenue. Dan Brown lives across the street and a little to the south of the crash site. He heard the plane throttle up, then crash a second or so later.
“Right after I heard him gun it I heard the impact on the ground,” he says. “And so I knew it had crashed. It was just really, really quick. In fact at that time I was on the telephone. I said, ‘A plane just crashed I gotta go.’”
Brown and two of his daughters jumped in his car and were at the crash site within about two minutes, where they could already see smoke rising from the trees.
“When I got there you could tell where the plane had clipped some spruce trees and where it had to have flipped over because it went into the round tail first from the direction is was coming from. So it hit trees, broke the tops of the trees off and then hit going backwards.”
The plane was already on fire and the heat was too intense for Brown to get up to the wreckage.
“I couldn’t get close enough to it. I felt real bad about it (that) I couldn’t get in there. I couldn’t hear anything from them, there was no noise from anybody in the plane. I went around both sides of it trying to get into it and I couldn’t, it was too hot.”
Within about 45 seconds the flames got even more intense.
“That fuel really got going and then the whole thing was engulfed in flames and you couldn’t be within about 20 feet of it.”
He made about a 50-foot circle around the plane, looking to see if anyone had been thrown from the wreckage. By that time the plane’s tires burst into flames, and Brown started hearing explosions.
Brown: “I’m pretty sure they had quite a bit of ammunition on board. It sounded like a war down there.”
He told his daughters to get back to the road while he made another wider loop around the plane, looking for survivors. As he did something hit him in the leg. It was smoldering and left a black mark, but didn’t penetrate the skin. Brown decided he’d better get back to the road, too.
Central Emergency Services and Alaska State Troopers from Soldotna responded to several reports of the downed plane and fire. Traffic on South Cohoe Loop was restricted until about 10:30 p.m. CES has the fire extinguished by about 8:50 p.m.
Brown said he didn’t think there was much danger of a wildfire taking off.
“The grass is all green green, so it didn’t grow from there. The only thing that burned from it was the spruce trees that we have here, you have the lower branches on the trees that are kind of dead and the upper ones are green. It went up the trees and burned all the dead branches off but it didn’t go beyond that.”
NTSB was contacted Saturday night and a team arrived on the scene around 1 a.m. Sunday. An investigator said Sunday that a witness reported the plane having a loss of engine power before it clipped some treetops and went down. Brown said he didn’t hear anything like that, just the whine of the engine throttling up and then the crash, but that’s not to say something mechanical didn’t happen.
Whatever the cause of the crash, Brown said he wishes there was something he could have done to save to the pilot and passenger.
“I was trying to think how could I have done any better and I don’t know how I could have done any better. The only way I would have even had a remote chance is to be standing right there with a fire extinguisher when it hit the ground, maybe. But there was too much fire to put out with a fire extinguisher, and I would have had to have gloves and something to rip into the plane. There was no way to open it up. It was all upside down, and too much fire.”
The crash is still under investigation.
Source: http://www.alaskapublic.org
ANCHORAGE, Alaska - Two men died Saturday night when a small plane crashed on the Kenai Peninsula, said Alaska State Troopers.
Troopers identified the men Sunday as pilot Brian Nolan, 69, and Peter Lahndt, 57, both of Kasilof. The Cessna 180, owned by Nolan, crashed on Cohoe Loop Road near Cook Inlet in Kasilof.
Trooper spokeswoman Beth Ipsen said troopers learned about the crash shortly after 8 p.m. and were on the scene by late Saturday.
"It's not a survivable accident," said Clint Johnson of the National Transportation Safety Board, which is investigating the accident. "There was a post-crash fire."
Several trees had scorch marks and debris from the crash was scattered over more than 30 feet in a heavily wooded area about 150 feet from the road, according to the Peninsula Clarion. The tops of some trees had been taken off by the impact.
Kasilof resident Dan Brown told the Peninsula Clarion he lives near the crash site and was the first one on the scene after hearing a bang and seeing a smoke plume.
Brown said he tried to get close to the wreckage while his daughter called 911.
It was burning when I got to it, and I couldn't get the guy out. I tried," said Brown, who described flames spreading rapidly from the plane. "I knew there was no hope of getting in there, so I walked two circles around that thing to see if there was anyone that was ejected out of it."
But he didn't find anyone.
Brown said the first fire truck showed up about 10 minutes after the 911 call. By that time, he said, the wreckage was popping and shooting debris.
"Stuff was flying everywhere," he said.
The Kenai crash is the seventh fatal plane crash in Alaska this year, according to an NTSB database analyzed by the Alaska Dispatch News.
In 2014, there were three fatal plane crashes and one fatal helicopter crash.
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