Unknown 5/21/95 Talkeetna Flying Crash

NTSB Database
A/C Type: Cessna 150
N-Number: N9GZ

Preliminary Report
On May 21, 1995, at 1230 Alaska daylight time, a wheel equipped Cessna 150 airplane, N9GZ registered to Alaska Aircraft Sales of Anchorage, Alaska, and operated by Alaska Air Academy for flight instruction, crashed into a mountain located 10 miles north of Wasilla, Alaska. The student solo flight, operating under 14 CFR Part 91, departed Lake Hood Airstrip, Anchorage, and the destination was Talkeetna, Alaska. A visual flight rules flight plan was filed but not activated, and visual meteorological conditions prevailed throughout the area. The Student Pilot was fatally injured and the airplane was destroyed by impact forces. According to the owner of Alaska Air Academy, the Student Pilot had been to Talkeetna twice and was familiar with the route. The accident site was approximately 12 miles east of the flight planned course. The on site investigation showed that the airplane struck the mountain side at the 3200 foot level in a ravine.

Probable Cause Report
The student was on the second leg of a solo cross country flight. The flight planned course would have taken the flight through an area of wide valleys. However, the wreckage was found 17 miles east of the flight planned course at the 3000' level of a mountain. The weather in the vicinity of the flight planned course during the time of the flight was high overcast. In the vicinity of where the wreckage was located, the mountain tops and upper ridges surrounding the valleys were obscured by clouds.

Probable Cause
The student pilot's inadvertent vfr flight into instrument meteorological conditions (imc) and failure to maintain clearance (or altitude) from the mountainous terrain.