SEA95FA128 · Luscombe 8A
Luscombe 8A · Accident: airframe, component or system failure while maneuvering
From Lenhardt Airpark (7S9) to an unrecorded destination
Event
- NTSB case
- SEA95FA128
- 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
- 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
Luscombe 8A
- Aircraft type
- Luscombe 8
- 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
- N719JX
- Operator
- Unknown
- Onboard fatalities
- Unknown
- Route
- From Lenhardt Airpark (7S9), ORTo 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
- Maneuvering
- 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
- Airframe, component or system failure
- 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
- Other maintenance personnel › Maintenance, installation, improper
- Wing, wing attachment bolt › Not secured
- Wing, wing attachment bolt › Slipped
Approximate · Coordinates as recorded by the NTSB; no uncertainty radius is established.
NTSB narrative
WITNESSES OBSERVED THE LEFT WING OF THE AIRPLANE SEPARATE AS THE PILOT WAS MANEUVERING APPROXIMATELY 1,000 FEET ABOVE THE GROUND. EXAMINATION OF THE WRECKAGE REVEALED THAT THE LOWER LIFT STRUT ATTACHMENT BOLT HAD SLIPPED OUT OF THE ATTACHMENT LUG, DEFORMED, AND SEPARATED IN POSITIVE BENDING OVERLOAD. THE ATTACHMENT NUT HAD EITHER BACKED OFF THE BOLT OR HAD NEVER BEEN INSTALLED. IT WAS NOT FOUND DURING AN EXTENSIVE SEARCH OF THE WRECKAGE AND THE ACCIDENT SITE. THE BOLT AND NUT FROM THE OPPOSITE WING WERE EXAMINED AND REVEALED THAT THE SELF-LOCKING NUT WAS NOT PROPERLY ENGAGED IN THE BOLT. ENTRIES IN THE MAINTENANCE LOGS INDICATED THAT THE AIRPLANE HAD BEEN REBUILT, AND THE LIFT STRUTS RE-ATTACHED, BY A MECHANIC WHO HAD INSPECTION AUTHORIZATION. THE REBUILD OCCURRED 2 YEARS AND 70 FLIGHT HOURS PRIOR TO THE ACCIDENT. THE AIRPLANE HAD SUBSEQUENTLY RECEIVED AN ANNUAL INSPECTION APPROXIMATELY 6 FLIGHT HOURS PRIOR TO THE ACCIDENT BY ANOTHER MECHANIC WHO HAD INSPECTION AUTHORIZATION, AND NO DISCREPANCIES WERE NOTED.
Probable cause
THE FAILURE OF THE MAINTENANCE PERSONNEL WHO REBUILT THE AIRCRAFT TO PROPERLY INSTALL THE WING LOWER LIFT STRUT ATTACHMENT BOLTS. CONTRIBUTING TO THE ACCIDENT WAS THE FAILURE OF ANOTHER MAINTENANCE PERSON TO ADEQUATELY INSPECT THE AIRCRAFT FOR PROPERLY SECURED BOLTS.
Verbatim NTSB analysis and probable cause from the NTSB dataset
Sources
NTSB record SEA95FA128
- Event ID
- 20001207X03805
- Case number
- SEA95FA128
- 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 1995-06-25.
- API snapshot SHA-256: 4f1bbee34c1c1fd4e2fcfa35a942a3e25be12135b3ee2ea51e2a34a9b297834e; retrieved 2026-09-20T23:43:35.143Z.