Skip to content

Atlas / NTSB / ANC11CA094

NTSB CAROL · Event

Event ANC11CA094

2011-09-04 North Pole, Alaska, United States Airport · 5AK3 None 1 aircraft Status: Completed

Registry · N78463

FAA Aircraft Registry record.

Make / Model

PIPER PA-12

Year of manufacture

1947 · 64 years old at event

Engine

LYCOMING 0-320 SERIES (180 hp)

Seats / Engines

3 seats · 1 engine

Last airworthiness date

19770411

ADS-B equipped

Yes — Mode-S AAA2A8

Registrant of record

HEDGES WILLIAM P

Source: FAA Aircraft Registry (releasable master file).

Aircraft involved

Probable cause & findings

The pilot's failure to maintain adequate airspeed during takeoff, resulting in an aerodynamic stall and collision with the water.

Factual narrative

The pilot of the float-equipped airplane aborted 2 takeoffs to the north from a float pond, after failing to become airborne at his no-go decision point. He said the wind was variable, and he initiated a third takeoff to the south. The airplane lifted off prior to reaching the no-go point, but he felt he was not going to clear the trees at the shoreline. He said the wind may have changed direction or quit, and the airplane was near stall airspeed. He said he had no option but to increase the pitch attitude, at which time the airplane stalled, and impacted the pond. The pilot of the float-equipped airplane aborted 2 takeoffs to the north from a float pond after failing to become airborne at his no-go decision point. He reported that the wind was variable and that he then initiated a third takeoff to the south. The airplane lifted off prior to reaching the no-go point, but the pilot thought that he was not going to clear the trees at the shoreline. He said the wind may have changed direction or calmed, and the airplane was near stall airspeed. He said he had no option but to increase the pitch attitude, causing the airplane to stall and impact the pond. Source: NTSB Aviation Accident Database Retrieved: 2026-02-12

NTSB Findings

Hierarchical cause / factor breakdown from the FAA bulk avdata database. Each finding tagged C (Cause) or F (Factor).

  • Aircraft-Aircraft oper/perf/capability-Aircraft capability-Climb capability-Capability exceeded
  • C Aircraft-Aircraft oper/perf/capability-Performance/control parameters-Airspeed-Not attained/maintained - C
  • C Personnel issues-Task performance-Use of equip/info-Aircraft control-Pilot - C

Verbatim from NTSB's published report. Source file NTSB_2011_ANC11CA094.txt. Findings + structured fields enriched from FAA avall.mdb. Full investigation docket on data.ntsb.gov ↗.

Related research

What the literature says.

Academic papers and agency reports matching this event's aircraft type or causal vocabulary (stall). Sourced from NASA NTRS, NTSB Safety Studies, FAA CAMI, AOPA Air Safety Institute, Embry-Riddle Scholarly Commons, arXiv, and the Semantic Scholar academic graph.

Browse the full corpus — academia portal ↗