Cessna 172M N9099H accident near Girdwood, Alaska

Probable cause

The pilot's decision to attempt to take off on a snow-covered runway. Contributing to the accident was the snow-covered runway.

NTSB analysis

The flight instructor was on an instructional flight with a student pilot and decided to land at a different airport prior to returning to the departure airport. He said that while above the airport where he intended to land he received a report from another pilot that there were 4-5 inches of snow on the runway. He made a successful soft-field landing and taxied back to the threshold to demonstrate a soft-field takeoff. The pilot said the airplane accelerated slowly on takeoff, and did not reach rotation speed before running through the runway end markers. He said the airplane continued down an embankment and came to rest in a creek. He said there were no known mechanical problems with the airplane prior to the accident and that the airplane sustained damage to the wings and fuselage. In a written statement, the pilot wrote that the accident could have been avoided by not landing on a runway with more than an inch of snow.

Text from the NTSB. Open the NTSB docket for ANC09CA010 for the full record.