AIRCRAFT 1 PRELIMINARY REPORT

On November 7, 1999, about 1500 Alaska standard time, a wheel equipped Piper PA-22-160 airplane, N8145D, sustained substantial damage after landing on the Glenn Highway, about 20 miles west of Glennallen, Alaska, at latitude 62 degrees, 03 minutes north, and longitude 146 degrees, 27 minutes west. The airplane was being operated as a visual flight rules (VFR) personal flight under Title 14, CFR Part 91, when the accident occurred. The private pilot/airplane owner was not injured. Visual meteorological conditions prevailed, and no flight plan was filed. During a telephone conversation with the National Transportation Safety Board (NTSB) investigator-in-charge on November 9, the pilot reported that he had just departed from a portion of the Glenn Highway when he remembered that he had forgotten the keys to his car that was parked at the Glennallen Airport, his intended destination. He stated that he elected to return, and while taxiing to his parking area, he applied the brakes, and both main wheels slid on the snow-covered highway. He said that when the left main wheel contacted a patch of dry pavement, the airplane veered to the left, collided with a drainage ditch, and nosed over. The airplane sustained substantial damage to the wings, left lift-strut, and empennage. The pilot noted that there were no preaccident mechanical anomalies with the airplane.

AIRCRAFT 1 FINAL REPORT

The certificated private pilot had just departed from a portion of the Glenn Highway when he remembered that he had forgotten the keys to his car that was parked at his destination airport. He elected to return, and while taxiing to the parking area, he applied the brakes, and both main wheels slid on the snow-covered highway. He said that when the left main wheel contacted a patch of dry pavement, the airplane veered to the left, collided with a drainage ditch, and nosed over. The airplane sustained substantial damage to the wings, left lift-strut, and empennage. The pilot noted that there were no preaccident mechanical anomalies with the airplane.

AIRCRAFT 1 CAUSE REPORT

The pilot's failure to maintain directional control during landing. A factor associated with the accident was snow-covered terrain.

END REPORT