SEA93LA168 · Cessna A150L
Civil Air Patrol Cessna A150L and Grumman 164B · Accident: midair collision on approach
Event
- NTSB case
- SEA93LA168
- 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
Aircraft 1 · Cessna A150L
- Aircraft type
- Cessna 150
- 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
- N5958J
- Operator
- Civil Air Patrol
- Onboard fatalities
- Unknown
- Route
- From Ephrata Municipal Airport (EPH)To Ephrata Municipal Airport (EPH)
- 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
- Approach · VFR pattern final
- 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
- Midair collision
- DamageDestroyed: beyond practical repair. Substantial: damage that affects the structure, performance or handling and normally needs major repair. Minor: less than that. Glossary
- Destroyed
Aircraft 2 · Grumman 164B
- Aircraft type
- Grumman 164
- 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
- N8407K
- Operator
- Shaw, Martin R. · private individual
- Onboard fatalities
- Unknown
- Route
- From Ephrata Municipal Airport (EPH)To Ephrata Municipal Airport (EPH)
- 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 137: Agricultural
- 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
- Midair collision
- 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 › Visual lookout, inadequate
- Pilot of other aircraft › Visual lookout, inadequate
Approximate · Coordinates as recorded by the NTSB; no uncertainty radius is established.
NTSB narrative
A MID-AIR COLLISION OCCURRED AT AN ALTITUDE OF 50 TO 75 FT OVER THE THRESHOLD OF RUNWAY 2, WHICH INVOLVED A CESSNA 150, N5958J, & A GRUMMAN 164B, N8407K. THE CESSNA PILOT WAS A SOLO STUDENT, PRACTICING TOUCH-AND-GO LANDINGS. HE WAS ON FINAL APPROACH TO RUNWAY 2. THE GRUMMAN PILOT HAD ENTERED THE AIRPORT ENVIRONMENT FROM THE NORTH & WAS SPRAYING A HERBICIDE ON THE EDGE OF THE RUNWAYS FOR WEED CONTROL. WHILE IN THE PATTERN, THE STUDENT SAW THE GRUMMAN & THOUGHT IT WAS DEPARTING FROM RUNWAY 11. AFTER THAT, HE DID NOT SEE THE GRUMMAN. THE GRUMMAN PILOT STATED THAT AS HE APPROACHED THE AIRPORT, HE ANNOUNCED THAT HE WOULD BE SPRAYING THE WEST SIDE OF RUNWAY 20 & ON RUNWAY 11. HOWEVER, NEITHER THE STUDENT NOR 2 WITNESSES, WHO WERE MONITORING THE UNICOM FREQUENCY, HEARD THE GRUMMAN PILOT ANNOUNCE HIS INTENTIONS. THE GRUMMAN PILOT SAID THAT HE NEITHER SAW NOR HEARD THE CESSNA IN THE TRAFFIC PATTERN, BUT THE 2 WITNESSES VERIFIED THAT THE STUDENT HAD ANNOUNCED HIS POSITION AROUND THE PATTERN.
Probable cause
INADEQUATE VISUAL LOOKOUT BY BOTH PILOTS, RESULTING IN THEIR FAILURE TO SEE-AND-AVOID EACH OTHER'S AIRCRAFT. A FACTOR RELATED TO THE ACCIDENT WAS: FAILURE OF THE GRUMMAN 164B PILOT TO ADEQUATELY MONITOR THE UNICOM FREQUENCY.
Verbatim NTSB analysis and probable cause from the NTSB dataset
Sources
NTSB record SEA93LA168
- Event ID
- 20001211X13260
- Case number
- SEA93LA168
- 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: ea190430201911c2ad49a5e77cb478985b5970d2dd05675dd8fce7649d76427e; retrieved 2026-09-21T14:12:53.298Z.