SEA95LA074 · Mirsepasy VAN'S RV-6A VAN'S RV-6
Mirsepasy VAN'S RV-6A VAN'S RV-6 · Accident: loss of control in flight during landing
From Tacoma Narrows Airport (TIW) to an unrecorded destination
Event
- NTSB case
- SEA95LA074
- 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
Mirsepasy VAN'S RV-6A VAN'S RV-6
- Aircraft type
- Mirsepasy VAN S RV-6A
- 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
- N35EM
- Operator
- Unknown
- Onboard fatalities
- Unknown
- Route
- From Tacoma Narrows Airport (TIW), Tacoma, WATo not recorded
- 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
- Landing
- 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
- Loss of control in flight
- 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 › Recovery from bounced landing, not performed
Approximate · Coordinates as recorded by the NTSB; no uncertainty radius is established.
NTSB narrative
GROUND WITNESSES, SOME OF WHOM WERE PILOTS, OBSERVED THE HOME BUILT AIRPLANE PITCHING UP AND DOWN DURING THE STRAIGHT-IN APPROACH TO THE RUNWAY. NO UNUSUAL ENGINE NOISES WERE REPORTED BY THE WITNESSES, AND NO DISTRESS CALLS WERE MADE BY THE PRIVATE PILOT TO THE CONTROL TOWER. THE AIRPLANE WAS THEN OBSERVED TO PITCH UP AND 'SLAM HARD' ONTO THE RUNWAY AFTER A DECREASE IN ENGINE POWER. THE AIRPLANE THEN BOUNCED INTO THE AIR AND BEGAN TO DRIFT OFF THE RUNWAY. AFTER THE AIRPLANE IMPACTED THE RUNWAY A SECOND TIME, THE ENGINE WAS HEARD TO 'REV UP.' THE AIRPLANE THEN PITCHED UP, BANKED TO THE LEFT, DESCENDED LEFT WING FIRST INTO THE GROUND, AND CARTWHEELED OFF THE WEST EDGE OF THE RUNWAY. NO PREIMPACT MECHANICAL MALFUNCTIONS WERE REPORTED BY THE PILOT OR FOUND BY INVESTIGATORS. THE WIND WAS BLOWING STRAIGHT DOWN THE RUNWAY (FROM 330 DEGREES) AT 11 KNOTS. THE PILOT STATED THAT HE COULD NOT REMEMBER THE LANDING.
Probable cause
THE PILOT'S FAILURE TO RECOVER FROM THE BOUNCED LANDING, AND HIS FAILURE TO MAINTAIN CONTROL OF THE AIRPLANE. CONTRIBUTING TO THE ACCIDENT WAS THE PILOT'S FAILURE TO MAINTAIN AN ADEQUATE DESCENT RATE TOWARD THE RUNWAY.
Verbatim NTSB analysis and probable cause from the NTSB dataset
Sources
NTSB record SEA95LA074
- Event ID
- 20001207X03378
- Case number
- SEA95LA074
- 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: 6be6f8b25958c67fc0b0c034f3b3dc7369ff40d070e79b96deaad237eb7f0196; retrieved 2026-09-21T13:23:08.210Z.