Salair Flight 2991
Douglas DC-3C · Accident: total loss of engine power (mechanical failure) during takeoff
From an unrecorded airport to Portland International Airport (PDX)
Event
- NTSB case
- SEA94FA085
- 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
- Charter & commuter
- WeatherVisual meteorological conditions (VMC): good enough to fly by looking outside. Instrument conditions (IMC): cloud or low visibility, flying by instruments. Glossary
- Visual Meteorological Cond
Douglas DC-3C
- Aircraft type
- Douglas DC-3
- 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
- N3433Y
- Operator
- Salair
- Onboard fatalities
- Unknown
- Route
- From not recordedTo Portland International Airport (PDX), Portland, OR
- 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 135: Air Taxi & Commuter
- 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
- Takeoff
- 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
- Total loss of engine power (mechanical failure)
- Also codedOther events the NTSB coded in the sequence, such as a wire strike after a loss of power. Flight Findings uses them for its kinds of event. Glossary
- Stall
- 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 › Airspeed, not maintained
Approximate · Estimated position: the centre of Spokane, WA, the place the record names. Not the accident site.
NTSB narrative
SHORTLY AFTER TAKEOFF, THE CO-PILOT REPORTED THAT THE FLIGHT WAS RETURNING WITH THE RIGHT ENGINE SHUT DOWN. SECONDS LATER, THE TOWER CONTROLLER SAW A FIRE. THE AIRPLANE COLLIDED WITH LEVEL TERRAIN, 3,450 FEET FROM THE END OF RWY 21 IN A 75 TO 80 DEGREE NOSE DOWN ATTITUDE. THE RIGHT ENGINE PROPELLER WAS FOUND IN THE FEATHERED POSITION. THE LEFT ENGINE INDICATED EVIDENCE THAT IT WAS PRODUCING POWER AT THE TIME OF IMPACT. A FATIGUE CRACK WAS FOUND THAT SEPARATED THE HEAD FROM THE BARREL ON THE NUMBER EIGHT CYLINDER OF THE RIGHT ENGINE. NO OTHER EVIDENCE WAS FOUND TO INDICATE A MECHANICAL FAILURE OR MALFUNCTION.
Probable cause
THE FAILURE OF THE PILOT-IN-COMMAND TO MAINTAIN AIRSPEED. FACTORS TO THE ACCIDENT WERE: CYLINDER FATIGUE, DARK NIGHT AND STALL ENCOUNTERED.
Verbatim NTSB analysis and probable cause from the NTSB dataset
Sources
NTSB record SEA94FA085
- Event ID
- 20001206X00995
- Case number
- SEA94FA085
- 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: investigation status. Values present in the bulk record are kept.
- The date is the local date, which is the same as the UTC date the NTSB stores.
- API snapshot SHA-256: c2e1505e917113a4c6508af5f9a2f78ca658ca5e17f86404de7e8b6db82d8383; retrieved 2026-09-18T13:49:48.609Z.