| On August 20, 2005, about 1200 Alaska daylight time, a Piper PA-18-150
airplane, N13833, sustained substantial damage when it nosed down during
taxi after landing on a remote gravel strip, about 80 miles north of Cold
Foot, Alaska. The airplane was being operated by the U. S. Fish and
Wildlife Service, Anchorage, Alaska, as a visual flight rules (VFR)
federal public use law enforcement flight under Title 14, CFR Part 91,
when the accident occurred. The solo commercial certificated pilot was not
injured. Visual meteorological conditions prevailed, and company flight
following procedures were in effect.
During a telephone conversation with the National Transportation Safety
Board (NTSB) investigator-in-charge on August 22, the Department of the
Interior investigator who interviewed the pilot said the pilot told him
that he landed on an unimproved strip to check sheep hunters. He said
after landing he was taxiing off the landing area, and the right main
wheel hit hole. He said during an attempt to power through the hole the
airplane nosed down. The director of maintenance for the operator said the
airplane sustained a broken engine mount, and structural damage to the
forward fuselage and firewall. According to the pilot, there were no known
mechanical anomalies with the airplane prior to the accident.
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