SEA97LA212 · Bellanca 7KCAB
Bellanca 7KCAB · Accident: in flight collision with object while maneuvering
From Eugene Airport (EUG) to an unrecorded destination
Event
- NTSB case
- SEA97LA212
- 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
Bellanca 7KCAB
- Aircraft type
- Bellanca 7
- 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
- N8509
- Operator
- Unknown
- Onboard fatalities
- Unknown
- Route
- From Eugene Airport (EUG), Eugene, 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
- 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
- Destroyed
Cause areas
- Pilot in command › Altitude/clearance, not maintained
- Pilot in command › Low altitude flight/maneuver, performed
Approximate · Coordinates as recorded by the NTSB; no uncertainty radius is established.
NTSB narrative
The first pilot (commercial pilot and CFI) invited the second pilot (private pilot) to fly with him on a personal flight in a tandem-seated aerobatic airplane. The first pilot sat in the rear seat behind the second pilot. During the flight, the airplane was observed to fly about 10 feet above a lake. The airplane was then observed to begin a climb over a dam and perform a barrel roll about 100 feet above the dam. During the maneuver, the airplane descended into tall trees that were located on a hillside near the lower, dry section of the dam. The engine was operating under power at the time of impact. An examination of the wreckage and the engine did not reveal any preimpact mechanical malfunctions. An investigation revealed that the first pilot had a recent history of performing low altitude aerobatic maneuvers. He also had a recent history of performing the maneuvers himself when he took passengers or other pilots with him. No evidence was found in the autopsies to indicate that anyone other than the first pilot was manipulating the controls at impact.
Probable cause
The first pilot's decision to perform a low altitude maneuver, and his subsequent failure to maintain altitude and clearance from trees during a low altitude maneuver.
Verbatim NTSB analysis and probable cause from the NTSB dataset
Sources
NTSB record SEA97LA212
- Event ID
- 20001208X08935
- Case number
- SEA97LA212
- 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: 4eafc513868301fd450dd7c96ba9fd81ac05b39055c0475b62e07b82342fa465; retrieved 2026-09-20T22:49:09.188Z.