SEA98LA103 · Casa BU-131
Casa BU-131 · Accident: partial loss of engine power (mechanical failure) en route
From Portland Hillsboro Airport (HIO) to Cottage Grove State Airport (61S)
Event
- NTSB case
- SEA98LA103
- 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
Casa BU-131
- Aircraft type
- Casa BU-131
- 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
- N1XW
- Operator
- Unknown
- Onboard fatalities
- Unknown
- Route
- From Portland Hillsboro Airport (HIO), Hillsboro, ORTo Cottage Grove State Airport (61S), Cottage Grove, 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
- En route · descent
- 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
- Partial loss of engine power (mechanical failure)
- 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
- Terrain condition › None suitable
- Throttle/power lever, linkage › Disconnected
Approximate · Coordinates as recorded by the NTSB; no uncertainty radius is established.
NTSB narrative
The pilot stated that he throttled back to descend. At about 1500 feet, he opened the throttle and got no response; the engine remained at idle. At 1000 feet, he was committed to land and chose a 40 acre field rather than attempt a landing on the highway. He was down and rolling when the airplane nosed over in soft terrain and tall rye grass. FAA inspectors determined that a bracket attaching the throttle linkage broke, causing the pilot to be unable to modulate engine power. The airplane nosed over, damaging the upper wing and vertical fin.
Probable cause
A failed bracket attaching the throttle linkage, which resulted in the inability to control power, and unsuitable terrain for a successful forced landing. Factors include soft terrain with high vegetation.
Verbatim NTSB analysis and probable cause from the NTSB dataset
Sources
NTSB record SEA98LA103
- Event ID
- 20001211X10431
- Case number
- SEA98LA103
- 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: ff0fb307fd791696a6644e288b609f64c34373a6b67ff575a3452799b865f6e3; retrieved 2026-09-22T17:39:58.150Z.