FlightFollowerAirplanes Collided MIDAIR | Cessna Skywagon and Cessna Skylark
On 13 June 2018, a Cessna 207 operated by Spernak Airways and a privately operated Cessna 175 collided in visual conditions near the mouth of the Big Susitna River, about 20 miles west of Anchorage. Both aircraft were operating under VFR and neither was in communication with an ATC facility. The 207 pilot was fatally injured; the 175 pilot survived without injury. The NTSB concluded that both pilots failed to see and avoid the other airplane.
Accident Facts
- Date
- 13 June 2018
- Registration
- N91038
The flights approached the same area from different origins
The Cessna 175 had departed a remote fish camp at about 1126. The Cessna 207 departed Merrill Field about 1200 for Tyonek. Their paths brought them into the same area near the Big Susitna River roughly five minutes after the 207 departed.
The pilots never saw each other coming
The Cessna 175 pilot, Bruce Markwood, told investigators he was making routine position reports during cruise flight at about 1,000 feet when he first spotted an unrelated aircraft passing well below him. As he watched that airplane continue past, he noticed the shadow of a second aircraft converging with his own shadow from the opposite direction. He looked up, saw the spinner of the other airplane filling his windscreen, and pulled back hard on the control yoke. The two aircraft collided moments later.
The Cessna 207, piloted by 56-year-old James Poelman of Wasilla, descended uncontrolled into the Big Susitna River and was destroyed; Poelman did not survive. Markwood's Cessna 175 remained flyable despite substantial damage, and he continued to Lake Hood Seaplane Base and landed without injury.
A frequency split may have kept the aircraft from hearing each other
Neither aircraft was in contact with an air traffic control facility, and investigators found the collision occurred close to a common traffic advisory frequency changeover point for the area: westbound Cook Inlet traffic used 122.70 MHz while eastbound traffic, including Markwood's Cessna 175, used 122.90 MHz. Markwood's radio also had a secondary, inactive frequency of 135.25 MHz selected. The Cessna 207's radios were not recovered, so investigators could not determine which frequency Poelman was monitoring or whether he was making position reports at all.
The area had a documented collision history
About four years before this accident, a series of midair collisions in the Matanuska-Susitna Valley — the same general area — prompted the FAA to redraw the geographic CTAF boundaries used north and west of Anchorage. Weather was not a factor in this collision: visibility at the time was reported at about 11 miles with only a few clouds below 10,000 feet, and both aircraft were operating in day visual conditions.
The investigation did not assign the collision to weather
The NTSB found visual conditions and concluded that the central failure was see-and-avoid performance by both pilots. The final finding is narrower than saying that either pilot intentionally made an unsafe maneuver: the Board identified the failure of both pilots to see and avoid the other aircraft in level cruise.
The documented record
“The failure of both pilots to see and avoid the other airplane while in level cruise flight, which resulted in a midair collision.” — National Transportation Safety Board, ANC18FA045
Conclusion
The Anchorage collision was a VFR midair between two aircraft operating without ATC communication. One pilot was killed and the other was uninjured. The NTSB’s probable cause directly addresses the collision mechanism: both pilots failed to see and avoid the other aircraft. No broader or more speculative explanation is needed.