Aircraft crashed under unknown circumstances.
Date: 05-OCT-22
Time: 23:53:00Z
Regis#: N217C
Aircraft Make: CESSNA
Aircraft Model: 185
Event Type: ACCIDENT
Highest Injury: FATAL
Total Fatal: 1
Flight Crew: 1 Fatal
Pax: 0
Aircraft Missing: No
Damage: DESTROYED
Activity: PERSONAL
Flight Phase: UNKNOWN (UNK)
Operation: 91
City: FAIRBANKS
State: ALASKA
Those who may have information that might be relevant to the National Transportation Safety Board (NTSB) investigation may contact them by email witness@ntsb.gov, and any friends and family who want to contact investigators about the accident should email assistance@ntsb.gov. You can also call the NTSB Response Operations Center at 844-373-9922 or 202-314-6290.
Jerald Stansel was the owner of a longtime Brooks Range wilderness guiding business, and led clients into what’s now Gates of the Arctic National Park and Preserve starting in the 1970s.
Stansel was piloting a float-equipped Cessna 185 at the Chena Marina airstrip in west Fairbanks on Wednesday afternoon when the crash occurred, according to Clint Johnson, Alaska chief for the National Transportation Safety Board.
Witnesses in the area said the plane flipped over forward while taxiing at slow speed, Alaska State Troopers said in an online report.
Troopers reported a plane upside down in the float pond at the marina, Johnson said.
“Our understanding is there was an attempted take-off that was aborted,” he said. “That’s where the plane rolled slightly to one side, nosed over and then became partially submerged.”
Stansel was extricated from the submerged plane and taken to the hospital, where he was pronounced dead, troopers said.
An NTSB investigator flew to Fairbanks on Thursday.
Stansel ran his guiding business, Alaska Fish & Trails Unlimited, for 40 years, according to the company website. It was up for sale. Stansel, a Vietnam veteran, said he was ready to retire. He told the Fairbanks Daily News-Miner in December that he wanted to spend more time with his children, grandchildren and great-grandchildren.
