| Crash location | 60.800000°N, 151.716667°W
Reported location is a long distance from the NTSB's reported nearest city. This often means that the location has a typo, or is incorrect. |
| Nearest city | Kenai, AK
60.554444°N, 151.258333°W 23.0 miles away |
| Tail number | N513F |
|---|---|
| Accident date | 24 Aug 2003 |
| Aircraft type | de Havilland DHC-2 |
| Additional details: | None |
On August 24, 2003, about 1500 Alaska daylight time, a tailwheel-equipped de Havilland DHC-2 airplane, N513F, sustained substantial damage following a loss of control while landing at a private airstrip, located approximately 25 miles northwest of Kenai, Alaska. The solo commercial pilot/airplane owner was not injured. The Title 14, CFR Part 91 personal flight operated in visual meteorological conditions without a flight plan. The flight departed the Lake Hood Strip, Anchorage, Alaska, about 1330, and the destination was the private airstrip.
During a telephone conversation with the National Transportation Safety Board investigator-in-charge (IIC) on August 25, at 1415, the pilot related he was landing to the south on the gravel-surfaced airstrip. He said there was a direct crosswind from the east at 5 to 10 knots, and shortly after he lowered the tailwheel during the landing roll, he lost control of the airplane and it ground-looped to the left. He reported that the right landing gear leg was bent, and the right wing was snapped-off about 4 feet inboard from the wingtip. He said there were no preaccident mechanical problems with the airplane.
The pilot's inadequate compensation for a crosswind during the landing roll, which resulted in a loss of control and subsequent ground loop. A factor in the accident was a crosswind.