Event ANC03LA055

Factual narrative

On June 6, 2003, about 1705 Alaska daylight time, a float-equipped de Havilland DHC-2 airplane, N343WB, received substantial damage when it collided with trees and a private residence following a loss of engine power while on approach to land at the Lake Hood Seaplane Base, Anchorage, Alaska. The solo commercial pilot was not injured. The Title 14, CFR Part 91 personal flight operated in visual meteorological conditions without a flight plan. The flight departed a remote lake near Beluga, Alaska, about 1635, and the destination was the Lake Hood Seaplane Base. The National Transportation Safety Board (NTSB) investigator-in-charge (IIC) spoke with the pilot of the accident airplane, and an Anchorage FAA Flight Standards District Office inspector, at 1725. The pilot spoke with the IIC from the accident site using the FAA inspector's cellular phone. The pilot related that he had departed a remote lake near Beluga, and was on final approach to land at Lake Hood, when the engine lost all power. The pilot said it was a "fuel starvation event." He said he had the fuel selector on the right fuel tank, and thought the right tank was about 1/4 full, but the engine stopped when he was about 300 yards from the lake, and about 150 feet above the ground. He reported that he had insufficient time or altitude to switch to the belly tank and restore power, and that he had to make an off-airport emergency landing. The airplane subsequently struck trees, and then a railing on the deck in the backyard of a private residence on Lakeshore Drive, and came to rest in the residence's garden, with the left wing resting on the deck railing. An FAA inspector at the accident site, and an NTSB investigator who viewed the airplane the day after the accident, noted structural damage to the left wing. In the NTSB Pilot/Operator Aircraft Accident/Incident Report submitted by the pilot, he reported that when he drained the fuel tanks prior to moving the airplane, he recovered about one quart of fuel from the right wing tank, and about 18 gallons from the belly tank. The float-equipped airplane was in the traffic pattern to land at a seaplane base when the engine lost all power, and the pilot made an emergency landing in the backyard of a private residence. During the forced landing, the airplane struck trees and a railing on the deck of the residence, sustaining structural damage to the left wing. The pilot reported that he had the right wing fuel tank selected, and thought the tank was about 1/4 full. He indicated that when the engine lost power, he was too low and didn't have sufficient time or altitude to switch to the belly tank and restore power. Postaccident draining of the fuel tanks disclosed about 18 gallons of fuel in the belly tank, and about one quart in the right wing tank. Source: NTSB Aviation Accident Database (Pre-2008 Archive) Retrieved: 2026-02-12