Accident Overview
On August 16, 2011, about 1435 Alaska daylight time, a Piper PA-18-150 airplane, registration N4205Z, sustained substantial damage when it presumably crashed in the ocean shortly after takeoff from a remote beach site. The site was located about 30 miles west of Cape Yakataga, Alaska. The airplane was being operated as a visual flight rules (VFR) personal flight under the provisions of 14 Code of Federal Regulations Part 91. Visual meteorological conditions prevailed at the time of the accident, and no flight plan was filed. The flight was most likely returning to a remote cabin near Cape Yakataga.
Occupants
The pilot and one passenger were aboard the airplane. They are presumed to have died at the scene. On August 22, the body of the passenger was discovered in the ocean surf. The pilot remains missing.
Discovery and Search
On August 17, an Alaska state trooper conducting a routine aerial shoreline patrol discovered the partially submerged wreckage. When first seen, the airplane was about 300 yards offshore, with only a portion of the empennage above the water. The trooper circled the area to search for survivors; when none were found, he landed his airplane on a small beach site close to where the wreckage eventually washed ashore. He waded into the ocean surf and looked inside the airplane for occupants, but none were found.
After the trooper departed to continue the aerial search, a Cessna 206 arrived overhead. A passenger aboard the Cessna reported that they were looking for the accident airplane, which was overdue. He stated that there was a pilot and one passenger aboard the accident airplane when it departed from a remote cabin, and that the pair planned to land on the beach to collect glacier ice from the banks of the Seal River, which was adjacent to where the airplane was found.
Beach Tracks
During the aerial search, the state trooper discovered tracks in the soft beach sand left by a tailwheel-equipped airplane. The tracks headed west toward the banks of the Seal River. The trooper noted that the tracks were consistent with a bouncing takeoff run, and that they ended just short of the river bank at the departure end of the site. He was unable to confirm that the tracks on the beach were left by the accident airplane.
Environmental Conditions
The Seal River is fast moving and carries large portions of glacial ice that calve from the Bering Glacier upstream. The mouth of the Seal River is regularly filled with large pieces of glacial ice, which are then carried by the current into the ocean waters of the Gulf of Alaska.
Wreckage
The airplane wreckage was subjected to numerous tide cycles, with heavy ocean waves intermixed with large pieces of glacier ice, which pulverized the wreckage. The wreckage was not recovered.