TOGIAK RIVER, AK, USA
N1530H
GRUMMAN G-21
PILOT IN COMMAND OF AMPHIBIAN AIRPLANE MISJUDGED THE LENGTH OF TAKEOFF RUN NEEDED TO GET AIRBORNE OFF AN AREA OF A REMOTE FISHING RIVER. THE AIRCRAFT COLLIDED WITH AN EMBANKMENT AT THE TURN OF THE RIVER. SUFFICIENT SEALANE WAS AVAILABLE IF THE AIRCRAFT HAD BEEN TAXIED UP STREAM.
On August 13, 1993, at approximately 1600 Alaska daylight time, a Grumman G21 Goose amphibian airplane, N1530H, collided with riverbank terrain during a water takeoff from the Togiak River, 15 miles up-river from the village of Togiak, Alaska. The flight was operated under 14 CFR Part 135 by Phillip Bingman, d.b.a. Fresh Water Adventures, Inc., as a domestic, non-scheduled, passenger flight for sport fishing drift boat charters. Visual meteorological conditions existed and the flight was destined for Dillingham, approximately 50 miles to the east. The airline transport pilot and four of the five passengers who boarded on the Togiak River were uninjured. One passenger received minor injuries and the airplane was substantially damaged. The pilot told investigators that he had landed in an unfamiliar spot and did not have sufficient sea lane to make the takeoff successfully. He said that despite full power, the airplane struck the bank and trees; cartwheeled, destroying "half the left wing and tearing off the airplane's nose, back to the rudder peddles." Two U.S. Fish and Wildlife employees witnesses the accident, and were interviewed by the Alaska State Troopers. The sport fishermen-occupants of the airplane reportedly had drifted to a point on the river below the normal pickup location on the Togiak River. That location is normally a wide and long stretch of water abeam the mouth of the Geshik River. Below that area, at the scene of the accident, the Togiak River winds through the wilderness with few straight stretches over a quarter mile. The NTSB requested the Alaska State Troopers to assess the accident takeoff area and current velocity. An Alaska game biologist reported that the current in the accident location was flowing at 2.7 knots.
THE PILOT IN COMMAND'S IMPROPER PREFLIGHT DECISION MAKING AND SELECTION OF UNSUITABLE TERRAIN FOR TAKEOFF.
Source: NTSB Aviation Accident Database
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