SEA92LA126 · Beech K35
Beech K35 · Accident: in flight encounter with weather en route
From Glacier Park International Airport (FCA) to McElroy Airfield (20V)
Event
- NTSB case
- SEA92LA126
- 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
- Instrument Meteorological Cond
Beech K35
- Aircraft type
- Beechcraft 35
- 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
- N212M
- Operator
- Mcchristy, John C. · private individual
- Onboard fatalities
- Unknown
- Route
- From Glacier Park International Airport (FCA), Kalispell, MTTo McElroy Airfield (20V), Kremmling, CO
- 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 encounter with weather
- 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 › In-flight planning/decision, poor
Approximate · Coordinates as recorded by the NTSB; no uncertainty radius is established.
NTSB narrative
THE PILOT REPORTED THAT WHILE CRUISING VFR THROUGH A MOUNTAIN PASS AT APPROXIMATELY 1,000 TO 1,200 FEET AGL, THE FLIGHT ENCOUNTERED A WHITE OUT CONDITION AND ENTERED IMC. THE PILOT IMMEDIATELY INITIATED A CLIMBING LEFT TURN TO REVERSE COURSE; HOWEVER, DURING THE TURN, THE AIRPLANE COLLIDED WITH TREES ON THE VALLEY WALL.
Probable cause
POOR INFLIGHT PLANNING/DECISION. FACTORS TO THE ACCIDENT WERE: DELAYED REMEDIAL ACTION, A WHITE OUT WEATHER CONDITION AND INADEQUATE CLEARANCE.
Verbatim NTSB analysis and probable cause from the NTSB dataset
Sources
NTSB record SEA92LA126
- Event ID
- 20001211X15003
- Case number
- SEA92LA126
- 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: 4aaa3f415ac7473e45267850a94ac63fc81d8dcc46d6c747d626b0451f5d12b8; retrieved 2026-09-23T03:03:42.474Z.