SEA99FA028 · Pacific Aviation Composites LC 40-550FG LC 40-550F
Pacific Aviation Composites LC 40-550FG LC 40-550F · Accident: in flight collision with terrain/water on approach
From S07 · Bend, OR to an unrecorded destination
Event
- NTSB case
- SEA99FA028
- Event typeAccident: someone killed or seriously injured, or the aircraft substantially damaged (NTSB definition). Incident: an occurrence that affected or could have affected safety, short of that. Glossary
- Accident
- InvestigationHow far the investigation had got when the record was published: preliminary, ongoing, final or completed. Unknown where the source does not say. Glossary
- Completed
- API-reported fatalities
- 2 · all aircraft and ground
- Ground fatalities
- 0
- OperationWhat kind of flying it was, grouped by the rules it flew under: airline (US Part 121), air taxi and commuter (Part 135), general aviation (Part 91 and similar), military or government. Glossary
- General aviation
- WeatherVisual meteorological conditions (VMC): good enough to fly by looking outside. Instrument conditions (IMC): cloud or low visibility, flying by instruments. Glossary
- Instrument Meteorological Cond
Pacific Aviation Composites LC 40-550FG LC 40-550F
- Aircraft type
- Pacific Aviation Composites LC-40
- Category
- Airplane
- RegistrationThe aircraft's tail number, such as N12345 or G-ABCD. Registrations are reissued, so the same one years apart can be a different aircraft. Glossary
- N141LC
- Operator
- Unknown
- Onboard fatalities
- Unknown
- Route
- From S07 · Bend, ORTo not recorded
- Aircraft age
- Not recorded
- Flight rulesThe regulations the flight operated under: in the US, Part 91 (general aviation), Part 121 (airlines), Part 135 (air taxi and commuter) and others; for flights abroad, the NTSB's coarser commercial or non-commercial code. Glossary
- Part 91: General Aviation
- Phase of flightThe stage of the flight when things started to go wrong: standing, taxi, takeoff, initial climb, en route, maneuvering, approach or landing. Glossary
- Approach · IFR final approach
- First occurrenceThe single coded event the NTSB judges best describes what happened (records from 2008 on). Older records name the first occurrence in the sequence instead. Glossary
- In flight collision with terrain/water
- DamageDestroyed: beyond practical repair. Substantial: damage that affects the structure, performance or handling and normally needs major repair. Minor: less than that. Glossary
- Destroyed
Cause areas
- Pilot in command › Aircraft control, not maintained
- Pilot in command › Lack of total experience in type operation
Approximate · Coordinates as recorded by the NTSB; no uncertainty radius is established.
NTSB narrative
Radar data and air traffic communications indicated that the pilot initially contacted approach control while the airport was under night visual conditions. Shortly after the initial contact, the weather conditions deteriorated and instrument meteorological conditions became effective. The pilot was advised of the weather conditions and given vectors to intercept the ILS 10L approach. As the aircraft was turning inbound to intercept the localizer, the air traffic controller notified the pilot that it appeared that he was aligned for the ILS 10R approach. The pilot advised the controller that he had tuned in the wrong frequency and asked the controller for the correct frequency. The controller informed the pilot of the correct frequency for the ILS 10L approach. Due to other air traffic, the controller instructed the pilot to turn to a northerly heading for vectors to the ILS 10L approach. The pilot complied with the controllers instructions and shortly thereafter was aligned for the ILS 10L approach. After the aircraft was established on the localizer and cleared to land, the flight course maintained a constant descent rate, magnetic heading and airspeed. Approximately one mile short of the runway, the course heading began to turn to the northeast of runway centerline. The last radar targets indicated that the aircraft continued to turn to the northeast and descend below radar coverage. The weather reported at the time of the accident and shortly after the accident, indicated that the ceilings conditions were below the approach minimums and both ceilings and visibility were deteriorating. Documentation of the wreckage that was recovered, indicated that the aircraft impacted the river in a nose low attitude. The pilot's flight logbook indicated that the pilot had recently been signed off for an instrument competency check that was performed under simulated flight conditions. The logbook indicated that the last flight logged under actual conditions was performed approximately seven years prior to the accident. The last simulated instrument flight was logged approximately three years prior to the accident.
Probable cause
Aircraft control was not maintained and the pilot's lack of total experience in type operation. Weather conditions reported ceilings below approach/landing minimums and a dark night condition were factors.
Verbatim NTSB analysis and probable cause from the NTSB dataset
Sources
NTSB record SEA99FA028
- Event ID
- 20001204X00113
- Case number
- SEA99FA028
- Dataset
- historical-pre2008
- Source SHA-256
- 89e2df6d848e7ab3b42e7d7c7a03ff403303057a26ca04c95b3ea67201c3ce74
Source notes (4)
- Unreviewed is an editorial label, not an investigation status. API-sourced is not report-checked or human-reviewed. Explicit event totals are used without summing aircraft injury tables; onboard allocation is withheld. Unknown values remain unknown. The operation category is mapped from the NTSB-reported FAR part and has not been reviewed.
- Filled from the NTSB case API where the bulk record had no value: local date, investigation status. Values present in the bulk record are kept.
- The date is the local date; the NTSB stores the UTC date 1999-01-09.
- API snapshot SHA-256: 60c63095002aad36c477bc4896ef9963f6acc85ca2a8f7956c10accd108f59b4; retrieved 2026-09-20T22:16:28.241Z.