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Atlas / NTSB / ANC91LA077

NTSB CAROL · Event

Event ANC91LA077

1991-06-19 WOODS RIVER, Alaska, United States Fatal 1 aircraft Status: Completed

Registry · N10PC

FAA Aircraft Registry record.

Make / Model

PIPER PA-18-150

Year of manufacture

1965 · 26 years old at event

Engine

LYCOMING 0-320 SERIES (180 hp)

Seats / Engines

2 seats · 1 engine

Last airworthiness date

19870706

ADS-B equipped

Yes — Mode-S A003A3

Registrant of record

COLVER TODD B

Source: FAA Aircraft Registry (releasable master file).

Aircraft involved

Probable cause & findings

FAILURE OF THE PILOT TO MAINTAIN ADEQUATE AIRSPEED, WHILE TURNING AFTER A LOW PASS, WHICH RESULTED IN AN INADVERTENT STALL. THE WIND GUSTS AND TURBULENCE WERE RELATED FACTORS.

Factual narrative

THE PILOT MADE A LOW, SLOW PASS OVER THE LANDING AREA. AFTER COMPLETING THE PASS, HE MADE A SHARP BANKED TURN TO THE LEFT AT LOW AIRSPEED, AND THE AIRPLANE STALLED AND CRASHED. NO PREIMPACT MECHANICAL PROBLEM WAS FOUND THAT WOULD HAVE RESULTED IN THE ACCIDENT. A TOXICOLOGY CHECK OF THE PLT'S BLOOD SHOWED A LOW LEVEL OF ETHANOL, BUT NO ETHANOL WAS FOUND IN HIS URINE; THE AMOUNT OF BLOOD/ETHANOL DUE TO PUTREFACTION WAS NOT VERIFIED. THE AIRPLANE WAS LOADED WITH 2 OCCUPANTS, A DOG, 73 LBS OF GROCERIES, AND A 50 LB SACK OF FEED ON EACH WING STRUT, BUT THE INVESTIGATION DID NOT VERIFY THE WEIGHT/DISTRIBUTION. THE PASSENGER REPORTED THAT THE AIRPLANE ENCOUNTERED WIND GUSTS AND TURBULENCE. Source: NTSB Aviation Accident Database (Pre-2008 Archive) Retrieved: 2026-02-12

Verbatim from NTSB's published report. Source file NTSB_1991_ANC91LA077.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, turbulence). 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 ↗