Floatplane crashed into Anchorage home after its engine failed, pilot told NTSB

A floatplane crashed into an Anchorage home Sunday after its engine failed shortly after takeoff from Lake Hood, according to a preliminary report by the National Transportation Safety Board.

The single-engine Cessna 180 took off from the "north water lane" at the Lake Hood Seaplane Base around 12:10 p.m. with just the pilot on board, according to the NTSB report.

NTSB Alaska chief Clint Johnson said in an interview Friday that the pilot planned to go on a "local area flight" and return to the seaplane base within the hour.

But the pilot quickly encountered trouble, according to the narrative laid out in the NTSB report based on the agency's interview with the pilot.

The pilot told the NTSB that during the climb from the lake, he was unable to retract the plane's wing flaps. The pilot asked air traffic control if he could return for a landing at Lake Hood, and a controller granted the request, the report said.

"You can fly around all day long with the flaps in the 20-degree position that he had them in, but he wanted to head back and have them looked at," Noreen Price, NTSB aviation accident investigator, said in an interview Friday.

But as the pilot turned back to the seaplane base, the plane's engine failed, according to the report.

"The pilot reported that … at an altitude of 600 feet, all engine power was lost," the report said.

The pilot then decided to land in an open field, the report said. However, he was unable to reach it and instead landed in a neighborhood directly north of Lake Hood — billed as the world's busiest seaplane base.

On the way down, the plane collided with a 40-foot spruce tree, a townhouse, a streetlight pole and a pickup before coming to a rest upright on a residential street, the report said.

The pilot got out of the crumpled plane on his own, and the report said he had "minor injuries." Price said the pilot was strapped into the seat with a four-point shoulder harness, and she believes that protected him from major injuries.

"That's why he walked away from this one with virtually nothing," she said.

No one else was injured in the crash, the report said. The plane left a gaping hole in the townhouse but nobody was home at the time.

NTSB reported that the crash happened around 12:20 p.m., 10 minutes after the plane took off.

It was a sunny Sunday afternoon and Price said the weather played no role in the crash. Price said the plane's fuel tanks were full at the time of takeoff.

Johnson said investigators don't yet know what caused the plane's engine to fail. He said Continental Motors manufactured the plane engine and the company planned to send an investigator to Alaska next week to help with the wreckage examination.

The NTSB report said the plane was registered to the pilot but did not include his name. Price said it's against agency policy to release the names of those involved in accidents.

According to Federal Aviation Administration records, the airplane is registered to Anchorage resident Jon Sutherlin.

Sutherlin is an Alaska Airlines captain, according to Marilyn Romano, the company's regional vice president for Alaska. He started working for the company in 1998, she said.

Romano said the company does not have a policy that would keep Sutherlin from flying its planes as the NTSB investigation continues.

"He is not scheduled to fly and will return once he and the company feel he is ready to return to work," she wrote in an email earlier this week.

Sutherlin could not immediately be reached for comment Friday morning.

Johnson said he expects the NTSB to release its factual report on the crash in early 2018. Shortly after that, the agency will release a probable cause, he said.