SEA94FA199 · Piper PA-12
Piper PA-12 · Accident: on ground/water collision with object while taxiing
From Newberg, OR to Independence, OR
Event
- NTSB case
- SEA94FA199
- 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
- 2
- 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
- Visual Meteorological Cond
Piper PA-12
- Aircraft type
- Piper PA-12
- 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
- N2368M
- Operator
- Davidson, Ben W. · private individual
- Onboard fatalities
- Unknown
- Route
- From Newberg, ORTo Independence, 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 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
- Taxi
- 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
- On ground/water collision with object
- DamageDestroyed: beyond practical repair. Substantial: damage that affects the structure, performance or handling and normally needs major repair. Minor: less than that. Glossary
- Minor
Cause areas
- Pilot in command › Clearance, not maintained
- Pilot in command › Visual lookout, inadequate
Approximate · Coordinates as recorded by the NTSB; no uncertainty radius is established.
NTSB narrative
THE PILOT OF THE FLOAT PLANE STATED THAT WHILE EN ROUTE, HE WAS MAKING TOUCH-AND-GO LANDINGS ON A RIVER. A LANDING WAS MADE AS THE AIRCRAFT APPROACHED THE AREA OF A FERRY TERMINAL, WHICH HAD SWIMMERS AND BOATING NEARBY. AFTER TOUCHDOWN, THE PILOT PROCEEDED TO STEP TAXI THE FLOAT PLANE THROUGH THE AREA. JUST PAST THE FERRY TERMINAL, THE FLOAT PLANE HIT A CANOE WITH 2 ADULTS AND 2 CHILDREN THAT WAS MOVING PARALLEL WITH THE RIVER. THE PILOT STATED THAT HE NEVER SAW THE CANOE, AND THAT WHEN HE FELT A BUMP, HE THOUGHT THAT A FLOAT HAD COLLIDED WITH A ROCK. THE 2 ADULTS IN THE BOAT WERE FATALLY INJURED.
Probable cause
FAILURE OF THE PILOT TO SEE-AND-AVOID THE OCCUPIED CANOE. FACTORS RELATED TO THE ACCIDENT WERE: THE PILOT'S IMPROPER PLANNING/DECISION AND EXCESSIVE TAXI SPEED.
Verbatim NTSB analysis and probable cause from the NTSB dataset
Sources
NTSB record SEA94FA199
- Event ID
- 20001206X01865
- Case number
- SEA94FA199
- 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: 521ad338ef50ef9b36cca7af7e7fe2048dd4856c544e8e608f0c26c65a93af4b; retrieved 2026-09-21T00:03:46.702Z.