NTSB Cites Weather, Terrain as Possible Factors in Denali Accident

Unable to reach the crash site, investigators documented the wreckage with a drone and aerial photography for the preliminary report.

Meg Godlewski

Thursday, August 31, 2023 at 02:43 PM ET

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Accident site location. [Credit: NTSB]

Key Takeaways:

A preliminary NTSB report details a fatal Piper PA-18 Super Cub crash in remote Alaskan terrain, killing both the pilot and passenger.
The accident occurred while the pilot was shuttling a hunter and gear to a remote hunting location after an initial scouting trip.
Wreckage was located four days later in a steep, unstable ravine, making investigation and recovery challenging, exacerbated by limited weather reporting in the remote area.

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The National Transportation Safety Board (NTSB) has released the preliminary report into a fatal accident earlier this month involving a Piper PA-18-150 (Super Cub) in steep terrain 60 miles northwest of Skwentna, Alaska. Both the pilot and passenger were killed.

On August 6, the pilot and two sheep hunters departed from the Big Lake Airport (PAGQ), Big Lake, Alaska, in a Cessna 206 to scout the Dillinger River area for a possible hunting location and a suitable landing area for the pilot’s PA-18.