SEA94LA178 · Cessna 172P
JVC Aviation Cessna 172P · Accident: in flight collision with object during takeoff
From an unrecorded airport to Renton Municipal Airport (RNT)
Event
- NTSB case
- SEA94LA178
- 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
- 0 · 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
- Visual Meteorological Cond
Cessna 172P
- Aircraft type
- Cessna 172
- 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
- N65857
- Operator
- JVC Aviation
- Onboard fatalities
- Unknown
- Route
- From not recordedTo Renton Municipal Airport (RNT), Renton, WA
- 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
- 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
- In flight collision with object
- 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
- Tree(s)
- DamageDestroyed: beyond practical repair. Substantial: damage that affects the structure, performance or handling and normally needs major repair. Minor: less than that. Glossary
- Substantial
Cause areas
- Check pilot › Supervision, inadequate
- Flightcrew › Clearance, not maintained
- Pilot in command › Planning/decision, improper
Approximate · Coordinates as recorded by the NTSB; no uncertainty radius is established.
NTSB narrative
THE PRIVATE PILOT (PIC) WAS ON A CHECK-OUT FLIGHT OVER MOUNTAINOUS TERRAIN THAT WAS REQUIRED BY THE FLYING CLUB. THE CHECK PILOT WAS ALSO AN INSTRUCTOR PILOT (CFI). SHORTLY AFTER TAKEOFF, THE PRIVATE PILOT TOLD THE CFI THAT THE AIRPLANE WAS NOT CLIMBING. THE CFI TOOK CONTROL OF THE AIRPLANE, AND NOTED THAT EVEN THOUGH THE AIRSPEED AND PITCH WERE NORMAL, THE AIRPLANE CONTINUED TO DESCEND. WHEN COLLISION WITH TREES WAS INEVITABLE, THE CFI SLOWED THE AIRPLANE TO REDUCE IMPACT FORCES. THE AIRSTRIP WAS SURROUNDED BY TREES AND MOUNTAINOUS TERRAIN, AND THE AREA WAS SUBJECT TO UP AND DOWNDRAFTS. NO EVIDENCE WAS FOUND TO INDICATE A MECHANICAL FAILURE OR MALFUNCTION.
Probable cause
IMPROPER PLANNING/DECISION BY THE PILOT-IN-COMMAND, AND INADEQUATE SUPERVISION BY THE CHECK PILOT, WHICH RESULTED IN THEIR FAILURE TO REMAIN CLEAR OF TREES DURING TAKEOFF. FACTORS RELATED TO THE ACCIDENT WERE: A DOWNDRAFT AND THE PROXIMITY OF TREES TO THE AIRPORT.
Verbatim NTSB analysis and probable cause from the NTSB dataset
Sources
NTSB record SEA94LA178
- Event ID
- 20001206X01877
- Case number
- SEA94LA178
- 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: e3b9264eb8b5162b143ec25c8d06dcabfc7c2cdf7d993d766766db9a44afe3d1; retrieved 2026-09-21T13:47:59.580Z.