SEA92IA040 · Piper PA-28R-200
Morcom Aviation Services Piper PA-28R-200 · Incident: in flight collision with object en route
From Orcas Island Airport (ORS) to Seattle Paine Field International Airport (PAE)
Event
- NTSB case
- SEA92IA040
- 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
- Incident
- 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
Piper PA-28R-200
- Aircraft type
- Piper PA-28
- 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
- N2742R
- Operator
- Morcom Aviation Services
- Onboard fatalities
- Unknown
- Route
- From Orcas Island Airport (ORS), EASTSOUND, WATo Seattle Paine Field International Airport (PAE), Everett, WA
- 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 · cruise
- 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
- DamageDestroyed: beyond practical repair. Substantial: damage that affects the structure, performance or handling and normally needs major repair. Minor: less than that. Glossary
- Minor
Cause areas
- Object › Bird(s)
Approximate · Coordinates as recorded by the NTSB; no uncertainty radius is established.
NTSB narrative
WHILE EN ROUTE FROM EASTSOUND, WASHINGTON, TO EVERETT, WASHINGTON, THE PIPER PA-28R-200 COLLIDED WITH A MALLARD. THE AIRCRAFT WAS CRUISING AT APPROXIMATELY 140 KNOTS IAS AT AN ALTITUDE OF APPROXIMATELY 1000 FEET. THE MALLARD PENETRATED THE PILOT'S WINDSCREEN, PASSING THROUGH THE UPPER CABIN AND AFT BULKHEAD BEFORE COMING TO REST IN THE REAR EMPENNAGE AREA. THE PILOT, WHO SUSTAINED MINOR INJURIES AND HAD HIS CORRECTIVE LENSES KNOCKED OFF DURING THE IMPACT, WAS ABLE TO CONTINUE FLIGHT WITH BACKUP GLASSES AND SUCCESSFULLY EXECUTED AN EMERGENCY LANDING AT ARLINGTON, WASHINGTON.
Probable cause
A BIRD IMPACTING THE AIRCRAFT.
Verbatim NTSB analysis and probable cause from the NTSB dataset
Sources
NTSB record SEA92IA040
- Event ID
- 20001211X14045
- Case number
- SEA92IA040
- 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: f7cccac6c69a01942fa21bc6efb396ede0e1143b1129325b5944d2e427840474; retrieved 2026-09-21T23:21:48.925Z.