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SEA93FA026 · Beech A60

21 Nov 1992 · SNOQUALMIE PASS, WA, United States

Beech A60 · Accident: in flight encounter with weather en route

From King County International Airport - Boeing Field (BFI) to Pullman-Moscow Regional Airport (PUW)

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Event

NTSB case
SEA93FA026
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
6 · 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 A60

Aircraft type
Beechcraft 60
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
N100EK
Operator
Huber, James D. · private individual
Onboard fatalities
Unknown
Route
From King County International Airport - Boeing Field (BFI), Seattle, WATo Pullman-Moscow Regional Airport (PUW), Pullman, 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 · climb to 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
Destroyed

Cause areas

  • Pilot in command › Aircraft control, not maintained
  • Pilot in command › Airspeed(vne), exceeded
  • Pilot in command › Design stress limits of aircraft, exceeded

Approximate · Coordinates as recorded by the NTSB; no uncertainty radius is established.

NTSB narrative

WHILE CLIMBING IN MOD ICING CONDS AFTER TAKEOFF, PLT WAS CLEARED TO 17,000'. RADAR DATA SHOWED ACFT CLIMBED AT AN INDCD AIRSPEED (IAS) OF 82 TO 123 KTS. A BEECH SAFETY INFO BOOKLET STATED THAT A MIN AIRSPEED OF 140 KTS MUST BE MAINTAINED IN ICING CONDS. CLIMBING AT REDUCED AIRSPEED WOULD HAVE INCREASED ANGLE OF ATTACK & ALLOWED ICE TO ACCUMULATE UNDER THE WINGS & AFT OF THE DE-ICING BOOTS. ACFT CLIMBED TO 13,500', DESCENDED MOMENTARILY TO 13,300', THEN CONTINUED CLIMBING AS AIRSPEED DECREASED ABRUPTLY. AFTER SLOWING TO 60 KTS IAS AT 13,700', THE ACFT ENTERED A STEEP DESCENDING TURN & ACCELERATED TO HIGH SPEED (ABOVE VNE). AN EMERGENCY WAS DECLARED, STATING THE AIRCRAFT 'LOST AN ENGINE.' SOON THERE- AFTER, RADAR CONTACT WAS LOST & THE ACFT CRASHED. PIECES OF EMPENNAGE SURFACES SEPARATED IN FLIGHT & WERE FOUND AT REMOTE LOCATION FROM THE MAIN WRECKAGE. BOTH COUNTERWEIGHTS SEPARATED FROM THE ELEVATORS. POST-CRASH TESTS DISCLOSED NO MECHANICAL EVIDENCE OF ENGINE MALFUNCTION. LOW CEILING, FOG, LIGHT RAIN, SNOW & ICING CONDITIONS WERE RPRTD IN AREA.

Probable cause

FAILURE OF THE PILOT TO MAINTAIN CONTROL OF THE AIRCRAFT, HIS FAILURE TO PREVENT THE AIRCRAFT FROM EXCEEDING THE NEVER EXCEED SPEED (VNE), AND SUBSEQUENT EXCEEDING OF THE DESIGN STRESS LIMITS OF THE AIRCRAFT. FACTORS RELATED TO THE ACCIDENT WERE: WEATHER CONDITIONS (INCLUDING ICING CONDITIONS), IMPROPER AIRSPEED, AND LOSS OF ENGINE POWER FOR UNDETERMINED REASON(S).

Verbatim NTSB analysis and probable cause from the NTSB dataset

Sources

NTSB record SEA93FA026
Event ID
20001211X16099
Case number
SEA93FA026
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: 958ae44e1cdbb3e26685a2e02899a8c0bb035fec1c5235f7be43f7db1cebb047; retrieved 2026-09-21T00:48:48.632Z.