Flight Line Cessna 402B accident
Cessna 402B and Pocatello Air Center Piper PA-34-200T · Accident: collision between aircraft (not in flight) while taxiing
Event
- NTSB case
- SEA95LA076
- 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
- Charter & commuter
- 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
Aircraft 1 · Cessna 402B
- Aircraft type
- Cessna 402
- 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
- N25BH
- Operator
- Flight Line
- Onboard fatalities
- Unknown
- Route
- From Boise Air Terminal/Gowen Field (BOI)To Salt Lake City International Airport (SLC), Salt Lake City, UT
- 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 135: Air Taxi & Commuter
- 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 · to runway
- 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
- Collision between aircraft (not 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
- Substantial
Aircraft 2 · Piper PA-34-200T
- Aircraft type
- Piper PA-34
- 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
- N3408Q
- Operator
- Pocatello Air Center
- Onboard fatalities
- Unknown
- Route
- From Boise Air Terminal/Gowen Field (BOI)To Spokane International Airport (GEG), Spokane, 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 135: Air Taxi & Commuter
- 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 · to runway
- 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
- Collision between aircraft (not 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
- Minor
Cause areas
- Atc personnel(lcl/gnd/clnc) › Identification of aircraft visually, not attained
- Pilot in command › Visual lookout, inadequate
- Pilot of other aircraft › Visual lookout, inadequate
Approximate · Coordinates as recorded by the NTSB; no uncertainty radius is established.
NTSB narrative
AT 2059 MDT, A LIGHTNING STRIKE OCCURRED, RESULTING IN A POWER OUTAGE IN THE AIR TRAFFIC CONTROL (ATC) TOWER. ELECTRICAL POWER WAS RESTORED, BUT SOME EQUIPMENT (INCLUDING THE RADAR COMPUTER AND VOICE RECORDERS) REMAINED INOPERATIVE FOR A TIME. AT ABOUT 2121 MDT, CESSNA 402B, N25BH, CONTACTED GROUND CONTROL (GC) AND WAS CLEARED TO TAXI FROM THE EXECUTIVE HANGAR TO RUNWAY 28R FOR TAKEOFF. ABOUT 1 MINUTE LATER, PIPER PA-34, N3408Q, CONTACTED GC AND WAS CLEARED TO TAXI FROM THE REGIONAL HANGAR TO THE DEPARTURE RUNWAY. DARK NIGHT CONDITIONS AND RAIN PREVAILED AT THE TIME. AS THE CESSNA WAS PROCEEDING EASTBOUND ON THE PARALLEL TAXIWAY TO RUNWAY 10L/28R, THE PA-34 WAS EXITING AN ADJACENT RAMP AREA (WHERE OTHER AIRCRAFT WERE PARKED). THE TWO AIRPLANES CONVERGED AT THE TAXIWAY INTERSECTION, BUT NEITHER PILOT SAW THE OTHER PLANE IN TIME TO AVOID A COLLISION. THE CESSNA'S LEFT WINGTIP/FUEL TANK WAS SLASHED OPEN BY THE PA-34'S RIGHT PROPELLER, WHICH RESULTED IN A FUEL SPILL AND SUBSTANTIAL DAMAGE TO THE CESSNA'S LEFT WING; THE PA-34'S RIGHT WING RECEIVED MINOR DAMAGE. INVESTIGATION REVEALED THAT GC DID NOT PROVIDE ANY ADVISORIES AFTER THE INITIAL TAXI CLEARANCE; AN ALARM (CAUSED BY AN EQUIPMENT FAILURE) DISTRACTED THE TOWER CONTROLLER(S), WHO NEVER VISUALLY IDENTIFIED THE PA-34.
Probable cause
FAILURE OF BOTH PILOTS TO PERFORM ADEQUATE VISUAL LOOKOUT DURING TAXI, AND THE GROUND CONTROLLER'S FAILURE TO IDENTIFY THE POSITION OF THE PIPER PA-34 BEFORE ISSUING TAXI INSTRUCTIONS. FACTORS RELATING TO THE ACCIDENT WERE: DECREASED VISIBILITY DUE TO DARKNESS AND RAIN, PARTIAL FAILURE OF ATC EQUIPMENT DUE TO A LIGHTNING STRIKE, AND DIVERTED ATTENTION OF ATC PERSONNEL DUE TO THE PARTIAL FAILURE OF ATC EQUIPMENT.
Verbatim NTSB analysis and probable cause from the NTSB dataset
Sources
NTSB record SEA95LA076
- Event ID
- 20001207X03380
- Case number
- SEA95LA076
- 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: local date, investigation status. Values present in the bulk record are kept.
- The date is the local date; the NTSB stores the UTC date 1995-04-08.
- API snapshot SHA-256: 9003e87c810878d674795b8f335e804551da628ffb164263abfc29e593348f28; retrieved 2026-09-18T18:01:50.428Z.