SEA93FA039 · Beech A36
Wilee Beech A36 · Accident: in flight collision with object on approach
From S42 · Silverdale, WA to WO4 · Ocean Shores, WA
Event
- NTSB case
- SEA93FA039
- 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
- 2 · 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 A36
- Aircraft type
- Beechcraft 36
- 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
- N7285R
- Operator
- Wilee
- Onboard fatalities
- Unknown
- Route
- From S42 · Silverdale, WATo WO4 · Ocean Shores, 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
- Approach · IFR final approach
- 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 › Proper altitude, not maintained
- Pilot in command › Visual lookout, inadequate
Approximate · Coordinates as recorded by the NTSB; no uncertainty radius is established.
NTSB narrative
THE AIRCRAFT, WHICH WAS ON THE FINAL APPROACH SEGMENT OF A VOR/DME APPROACH, WAS SEEN JUST BELOW THE CLOUDS, AND LESS THAN 100 FEET ABOVE THE TREES ABOUT ONE TO TWO MILES BEFORE THE IMPACT POINT. THE CEILING AROUND THE TIME OF THE ACCIDENT WAS APPROXIMATELY 270 FEET LOWER THAN THE MINIMUM DESCENT ALTITUDE (MDA) FOR THE APPROACH. WITNESSES REPORTED THAT IT WAS A DARK NIGHT, AND THAT DRIZZLE AND FOG WERE BEING BLOWN THROUGH THE HILLS IN THE AREA OF THE IMPACT. WITNESSES WHO SAW THE AIRCRAFT JUST PRIOR TO THE CRASH SAID THAT THE ENGINE SOUNDS APPEARED NORMAL AND STEADY, AND THAT THE AIRCRAFT WAS FLYING NEARLY WINGS LEVEL. THE PILOT HAD TOLD THE AIR TRAFFIC CONTROLLER THAT HE INTENDED TO BREAK OUT ON THIS APPROACH, AND THEN PROCEED TO A NEARBY AIRPORT WHICH DID NOT HAVE A PUBLISHED INSTRUMENT PROCEDURE.
Probable cause
THE PILOT'S FAILURE TO MAINTAIN PROPER ALTITUDE, AND AN INADEQUATE VISUAL LOOKOUT. FACTORS INCLUDE WEATHER BELOW APPROACH MINIMUMS, FOG, DRIZZLE, AND A DARK NIGHT.
Verbatim NTSB analysis and probable cause from the NTSB dataset
Sources
NTSB record SEA93FA039
- Event ID
- 20001211X16239
- Case number
- SEA93FA039
- 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: local date, investigation status. Values present in the bulk record are kept.
- The date is the local date; the NTSB stores the UTC date 1992-12-14.
- API snapshot SHA-256: d417df06d4692a79bc3b4a258d005fdd7b73ad230bfb9707af19744c8a18bd5a; retrieved 2026-09-21T00:46:04.428Z.