SEA94FA106 · Piper PA-32-260
Piper PA-32-260 · Accident: airframe, component or system failure en route
From Kelowna International Airport (YLW) to Missoula Montana Airport (MSO)
Event
- NTSB case
- SEA94FA106
- 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
- 1 · 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
Piper PA-32-260
- Aircraft type
- Piper PA-32
- 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
- N7659C
- Operator
- Unknown
- Onboard fatalities
- Unknown
- Route
- From Kelowna International Airport (YLW), KELWONATo Missoula Montana Airport (MSO), Missoula, MT
- 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
- En route · cruise
- 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
- Airframe, component or system failure
- 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 › Design stress limits of aircraft, exceeded
- Pilot in command › Spatial disorientation
Approximate · Coordinates as recorded by the NTSB; no uncertainty radius is established.
NTSB narrative
WHILE EN ROUTE ON A VFR FLIGHT PLAN, THE PILOT CONTACTED SEATTLE ARTCC & OBTAINED AN IFR CLEARANCE. SUBSEQUENTLY, HE REQUESTED & WAS CLEARED TO CLIMB TO 15,000' MSL. DURING THE CLIMB, ARTCC TEMPORARILY LOST RADAR CONTACT WITH THE PLANE & ASKED THE PILOT TO REPORT AT 15,000', WHICH HE DID AT 1329 PDT. ABOUT 1 MINUTE LATER, THE PILOT SAID HE LOST 'GYRO SUCTION' & WOULD BE USING 'PARTIAL PANEL.' ALSO, HE REPORTED THERE WAS STILL SOME IMC CONDITIONS, THAT HE WAS IN & OUT OF CLOUDS & THAT HE HAD ENCOUNTERED SOME LIGHT RIME ICING CONDITIONS. SOON THEREAFTER, ARTCC LOST RADIO & RADAR CONTACT WITH THE AIRPLANE. A WITNESS HEARD THE SOUND OF THE ENGINE REVVING JUST BEFORE THE PLANE CRASHED. AN EXAM OF THE WRECKAGE REVEALED THE WINGS & EMPENNAGE HAD SEPARATED IN FLIGHT. THERE WAS EVIDENCE THE WINGS HAD FAILED DOWNWARD. THE FUSELAGE SKIN FORWARD OF THE EMPENNAGE WAS RIPPED & TORN WITH NUMEROUS RIVETS TORN THROUGH THE SEAMS. A CHECK OF THE VACUUM PUMP REVEALED EVIDENCE OF SEIZURE AFTER LONG-TERM ENGINE OIL CONTAMINATION & WEAR.
Probable cause
FAILURE OF THE PILOT TO MAINTAIN AIRCRAFT CONTROL, DUE TO SPATIAL DISORIENTATION, WHILE FLYING WITH PARTIAL PANEL, AND THE DESIGN STRESS LIMITS OF THE AIRCRAFT BEING EXCEEDED. FACTORS RELATED TO THE ACCIDENT WERE: FAILURE OF THE VACUUM SYSTEM, WHICH RESULTED IN AN INOPERATIVE ATTITUDE INDICATOR, AND THE ADVERSE WEATHER CONDITIONS.
Verbatim NTSB analysis and probable cause from the NTSB dataset
Sources
NTSB record SEA94FA106
- Event ID
- 20001206X01171
- Case number
- SEA94FA106
- 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: df9a491fe1c43c3d08f4c96888fdd6bf969c292bf1f60f410142269e29055110; retrieved 2026-09-21T00:10:55.508Z.