SEA92LA129 · William Bovard GLASAIR
William Bovard GLASAIR · Accident: in flight collision with object during initial climb
From an unrecorded airport to Vancouver, WA
Event
- NTSB case
- SEA92LA129
- 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
- 1 · 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
William Bovard GLASAIR
- Aircraft type
- William Bovard GLASAIR
- 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
- N107WB
- Operator
- Bovard, William J. · private individual
- Onboard fatalities
- Unknown
- Route
- From not recordedTo Vancouver, 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
- Initial climb
- 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 › Airspeed, inadequate
Approximate · Coordinates as recorded by the NTSB; no uncertainty radius is established.
NTSB narrative
DURING A DOWNWIND TAKEOFF, WITNESSES REPORTED THAT THE AIRPLANE LIFTED OFF THE RUNWAY AND DRIFTED TO THE LEFT. THE AIRPLANE ATTAINED AN ALTITUDE OF APPROXIMATELY 30 FEET, WHEN IT COLLIDED WITH 60 FOOT TREES, LOCATED 1,350 FEET FROM THE DEPARTURE END OF THE RUNWAY AND 160 FEET TO THE LEFT OF CENTERLINE. THE AIRPLANE FELL TO THE GROUND, AT THE BASE OF THE TREES AND WAS CONSUMED BY FIRE. THIS AIRPLANE WAS EQUIPPED WITH TWO FOOT WING EXTENSIONS AND HAD THE ORIGINAL SMALL RUDDER. INFORMATION PUBLISHED BY THE VENDOR, STODDARD HAMILTON, HAS REPORTED THAT IF MINIMUM AIRSPEED IS NOT MAINTAINED, THE SMALL RUDDER MAY NOT MAINTAIN ADEQUATE YAW CONTROL. THE VENDOR RECOMMENDS THAT THE, NOW STANDARD, LARGE RUDDER BE INSTALLED.
Probable cause
INADEQUATE AIRSPEED. FACTORS TO THE ACCIDENT WERE: A TAILWIND TAKEOFF AND POOR PREFLIGHT PLANNING/PREPARATION.
Verbatim NTSB analysis and probable cause from the NTSB dataset
Sources
NTSB record SEA92LA129
- Event ID
- 20001211X15006
- Case number
- SEA92LA129
- 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: 0851929f246a88d1c88fc66533a6f608ad5c3c470077cbb61151b70d0bc5fab0; retrieved 2026-09-21T01:06:53.057Z.