SEA97LA161 · Cessna 170B
Cessna 170B · Accident: in flight collision with object during initial climb
From an unrecorded airport to Crater Lake-Klamath Regional Airport (LMT)
Event
- NTSB case
- SEA97LA161
- 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 170B
- Aircraft type
- Cessna 170
- 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
- N37RA
- Operator
- Unknown
- Onboard fatalities
- Unknown
- Route
- From not recordedTo Crater Lake-Klamath Regional Airport (LMT), Klamath Falls, OR
- 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
- Initial climb
- 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 › Proper climb rate, not attained
Approximate · Coordinates as recorded by the NTSB; no uncertainty radius is established.
NTSB narrative
The pilot stated that the takeoff ground roll seemed somewhat long, however, after 2/3 to 3/4 of the way down the runway, the airplane lifted off. The airplane attained an altitude of about 50 feet and would then climb no higher. The pilot made a turn away from trees and continued to try and avoid obstacles. The airplane subsequently collided with trees about one mile southeast of the runway. The nose of the airplane dropped and the airplane collided with the terrain in a steep nose down attitude. Witnesses reported that the pilot began the takeoff roll at the 1,000 foot displaced threshold and used most of the runway before lifting off. The airport elevation is 4,159 feet. The runway is 5,500 feet long with a 1,000 foot displaced threshold. At the time of the accident, the density altitude was calculated at 6,118 feet.
Probable cause
the pilot's failure to attain a proper climb rate. High density altitude and the pilot's failure to use all of the available runway were factors.
Verbatim NTSB analysis and probable cause from the NTSB dataset
Sources
NTSB record SEA97LA161
- Event ID
- 20001208X08503
- Case number
- SEA97LA161
- 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: 109f6bc2b1de2f671eccdefea8c6528cd34c59e08a98d6c92b9b5004abcd1ca6; retrieved 2026-09-21T11:59:33.327Z.