SEA93FA032 · Cessna 152
Snohomish Flying Service Cessna 152 · Accident: airframe, component or system failure while maneuvering
From Seattle Paine Field International Airport (PAE) to Seattle Paine Field International Airport (PAE)
Event
- NTSB case
- SEA93FA032
- 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
Cessna 152
- Aircraft type
- Cessna 152
- 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
- N69260
- Operator
- Snohomish Flying Service
- Onboard fatalities
- Unknown
- Route
- From Seattle Paine Field International Airport (PAE), Everett, WATo Seattle Paine Field International Airport (PAE)
- 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
- 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
- Airframe, component or system failure
- 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 › Design stress limits of aircraft, exceeded
Approximate · Coordinates as recorded by the NTSB; no uncertainty radius is established.
NTSB narrative
A WITNESS DESCRIBED THE AIRCRAFT AS DESCENDING WITH ITS WINGS FOLDED IN A NEAR VERTICAL DESCENT. THE LEFT SIDE OF THE HORIZONTAL STABILIZER WAS FOLDED DOWNWARD NEARLY 90 DEGREES AT APPROXIMATELY MID SPAR, AND THE RIGHT ELEVATOR AND RIGHT SIDE OF THE HORIZONTAL STABILIZER WAS ALSO FOLDED DOWNWARD IN TWO LOCATIONS. BOTH WINGS SHOWED EVIDENCE OF FAILING DOWNWARD OUTBOARD OF THE WING STRUT ATTACHMENT POINTS. DURING A DUAL INSTRUCTIONAL FLIGHT THE PREVIOUS DAY, THE STUDENT HAD ASKED HIS INSTRUCTOR TO DEMONSTRATE SPINS. THE INSTRUCTOR HAD DECLINED, ADVISING THE STUDENT THAT PARACHUTES WERE REQUIRED FOR SPIN TRAINING.
Probable cause
THE DESIGN STRESS LIMITS OF THE AIRFRAME WERE EXCEEDED BY THE STUDENT PILOT.
Verbatim NTSB analysis and probable cause from the NTSB dataset
Sources
NTSB record SEA93FA032
- Event ID
- 20001211X16236
- Case number
- SEA93FA032
- 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: 54670c9400142571a559764f0fcc7704acee1e6e9cf83052a121b9abd87a986a; retrieved 2026-09-21T00:46:48.549Z.