SEA95LA039 · Piper PA-31-350
Piper PA-31-350 · Accident: in flight collision with object on approach
From Eastern Oregon Regional Airport at Pendleton (PDT) to La Grande/Union County Airport (LGD)
Event
- NTSB case
- SEA95LA039
- 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
- Instrument Meteorological Cond
Piper PA-31-350
- Aircraft type
- Piper PA-31
- 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
- N36PB
- Operator
- Unknown
- Onboard fatalities
- Unknown
- Route
- From Eastern Oregon Regional Airport at Pendleton (PDT), Pendleton, ORTo La Grande/Union County Airport (LGD)
- 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 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
- Pilot in command › Altitude/clearance, not maintained
Approximate · Coordinates as recorded by the NTSB; no uncertainty radius is established.
NTSB narrative
THE PILOT REPORTED THAT WHILE FLYING THE NDB APPROACH IN IMC, HE NOTED THAT THE IDENTIFYING SIGNAL WAS WEAK AND THE ADF NEEDLE WANDERED. HE CONTINUED THE APPROACH, BUT DID NOT DESCEND BELOW THE MINIMUM DESCENT ALTITUDE OF 4000' MSL. WHEN HE FELT THAT HE WAS OVER THE RUNWAY, HE LOOKED DOWN AND SAW TREES THROUGH THE FOG. IMMEDIATELY THEREAFTER, HE FELT THE AIRPLANE HIT SOMETHING. THE PILOT PERFORMED A MISSED APPROACH AND DIVERTED TO ANOTHER AIRPORT, WHERE HE LANDED WITHOUT FURTHER INCIDENT. AN EXAM OF THE AIRPLANE REVEALED EVIDENCE THAT IT HAD COLLIDED WITH A TREE. AN INVESTIGATION REVEALED THAT THE NDB WAS OUT OF SERVICE, AND NO NOTAM HAD BEEN ISSUED. THE PARTY RESPONSIBLE FOR REPORTING THE SERVICEABILITY OF THE NDB REPORTED TO THE FSS THAT THE 'BEACON' WAS OUT OF SERVICE. THE FSS INTERPRETED 'BEACON' AS THE 'ROTATING BEACON' ON THE AIRPORT. THE AIRPORT WAS LOCATED IN A VALLEY AT AN ELEVATION OF 2714'. THE NDB APPROACH TO THE AIRPORT WAS FROM THE NORTH. HIGH TERRAIN TO ABOUT 6000' MSL WAS LOCATED TO THE EAST AND WEST OF THE AIRPORT. THE INVESTIGATION DID NOT REVEAL THE EXACT LOCATION OF IMPACT WITH TREE(S).
Probable cause
FAILURE OF THE PILOT TO MAINTAIN PROPER ALTITUDE/CLEARANCE FROM HIGHER TERRAIN THAT WAS LOCATED NEAR THE AIRPORT. FACTORS RELATED TO THE ACCIDENT WERE: LOW CEILING, FOG, FALSE/INCORRECT INDICATION OF THE NDB, FAILURE OF OTHER PERSONNEL TO PROPERLY ISSUE A NOTAM CONCERNING THE NDB, AND FAILURE OF THE PILOT TO PROPERLY IDENTIFY THE NAVAID SIGNAL.
Verbatim NTSB analysis and probable cause from the NTSB dataset
Sources
NTSB record SEA95LA039
- Event ID
- 20001207X02915
- Case number
- SEA95LA039
- 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: 8831d0c9d3b06aec35e8cff103e01b18c581a26d6629a8b8efa855eedb110a81; retrieved 2026-09-23T00:19:01.811Z.