NTSB CAROL · Event
Event ANC93LA133
Aircraft involved
Probable cause & findings
THE PILOT'S FAILURE TO ATTAIN A PROPER TOUCHDOWN POINT. A FACTOR WAS THE PILOT'S IMPROPER IN FLIGHT PLANNING/DECISION.
Factual narrative
HISTORY OF FLIGHT
On August 1, 1993, at 1200 Alaska daylight time, a wheel equipped Bellanca 7GCBC airplane, N68578, landed short of the approach end of the runway, then nosed over at Soldotna, Alaska. The private pilot, the sole occupant, was not injured. The airplane was substantially damaged. The personal local flight, operating under 14 CFR Part 91, had departed from the Soldotna Airport about 15 minutes prior to the accident. Visual meteorological conditions existed, and no flight plan was filed. Shortly after the accident the pilot stated that one of the airplane's brakes locked up while performing a post maintenance high speed taxi. One witness, Mr. Richard Reed, stated that the airplane nosed over after it touched down short of the runway during landing. Several other persons reportedly witnessed the accident but would not identify themselves. Officer John Gregory from the Soldotna Police Department, stated that he found ground scars that indicated that the airplane touched down short of the runway.
ADDITIONAL INFORMATION
Following the accident FAA Inspector David S. McGlothlen, FSDO-03, Anchorage, Alaska, interviewed the pilot, Mr. Theodore A. Smith. At that time the pilot stated that the accident occurred while he was practicing short field landings. On NTSB Form 6120.1/2 (Accident Report), the pilot reported that he was practicing aborted takeoffs on short fields, and applied the brakes too "aggressively". WITNESSES REPORTED SEEING THE AIRPLANE TOUCH DOWN SHORT OF THE RUNWAY AND NOSE OVER. Source: NTSB Aviation Accident Database (Pre-2008 Archive) Retrieved: 2026-02-12
Verbatim from NTSB's published report. Source file
NTSB_1993_ANC93LA133.txt.
Findings + structured fields enriched from FAA avall.mdb.
Full investigation docket on
data.ntsb.gov ↗.
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Related research
What the literature says.
Academic papers and agency reports matching this event's aircraft type or causal vocabulary (icing, maintenance). Sourced from NASA NTRS, NTSB Safety Studies, FAA CAMI, AOPA Air Safety Institute, Embry-Riddle Scholarly Commons, arXiv, and the Semantic Scholar academic graph.
- Embry-Riddle Scholarly Commons 2023 · Faculty research project
Reconfigurable Guidance and Control Systems for Emerging On-Orbit Servicing, Assembly, and Manufacturing (OSAM) Space Vehicles
Dynamic response to emergent situations is a necessity in the on-orbit servicing, assembly, and manufacturing (OSAM) field, because traditional on-orbit guidance and control (G&C) cannot respond effic…
- Embry-Riddle Scholarly Commons 2019 · Journal article (IJAAA)
Satellite Maintenance: An Opportunity to Minimize the Kessler Effect
Recently, there has been an emphasis on the growing problem of orbital debris. While the advantages of placing satellites into space are numerous, advances in satellite technology combined with the gr…
- Embry-Riddle Scholarly Commons 2015 · Conference paper
The Implementation of Safety Management Systems in Maintenance Operations
Literature for Safety Management Systems (SMS) that apply to flight operations is abundant, but there is a limited supply of SMS-related literature for maintenance operations.
- Embry-Riddle Scholarly Commons 2026 · Journal article (IJAAA)
From Reactive to Predictive: A hybrid Trust-Mediated Adoption Framework for Data-Driven Maintenance in Distributed-Authority Aviation Environments
Modern aviation maintenance operates within increasingly data-intensive technological environments, yet the operational integration of predictive maintenance into routine decision-making remains incon…
- NASA NTRS 2026 · Contractor Report (CR)
Icing Physics Studies Using the 3D SIDRM Test Article: 2023 Icing Tests Analysis
In-flight icing is an important safety issue and is a factor that affects aircraft design and performance. Newer regulations are driving a need for improvements in airframe and engine icing simulation…
- arXiv 2025 · arXiv preprint
Multi-Agent Deep Reinforcement Learning for UAV-Assisted 5G Network Slicing: A Comparative Study of MAPPO, MADDPG, and MADQN
The growing demand for robust, scalable wireless networks in the 5G-and-beyond era has led to the deployment of Unmanned Aerial Vehicles (UAVs) as mobile base stations to enhance coverage in dense urb…
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