SEA93LA043 · Cessna 150K
Cessna 150K · Accident: in flight encounter with weather en route
From Jackson Hole Airport (JAC) to Mission Field (LVM)
Event
- NTSB case
- SEA93LA043
- 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
Cessna 150K
- Aircraft type
- Cessna 150
- 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
- N6072G
- Operator
- Kohut, Robert J. · private individual
- Onboard fatalities
- Unknown
- Route
- From Jackson Hole Airport (JAC), JACKSON HOLE, WYTo Mission Field (LVM), Livingston, MT
- 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
- 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 › Altitude, not possible
- Pilot in command › Flight into known adverse weather, attempted
Approximate · Coordinates as recorded by the NTSB; no uncertainty radius is established.
NTSB narrative
AFTER DEPARTING THE SANTA MONICA AREA OF CALIFORNIA EN ROUTE TO BILLINGS, MONTANA, TO SPEND CHRISTMAS WITH HIS SISTER, THE PILOT STOPPED IN OGDEN, UTAH, AND RECEIVED A VFR NOT RECOMMENDED WEATHER BRIEFING FOR THE OGDEN TO JACKSON, WYOMING, LEG OF THE FLIGHT. THE PILOT DEPARTED FOR JACKSON WITHOUT A FLIGHT PLAN AND UPON ARRIVAL WAS DISCOURAGED FROM CONTINUING ON HIS FLIGHT TO BILLINGS BY FBO PERSONAL AT THE JACKSON HOLE AIRPORT. ONE FBO EMPLOYEE DESCRIBED THE WEATHER AT JACKSON AS 'HORRIBLE'. THE PILOT FUELED AND SUBSEQUENTLY DEPARTED FOR LIVINGSTON, MONTANA, FILING NO FLIGHT PLAN AND OBTAINING NO WEATHER BRIEFING UPDATE. SHORTLY AFTER DEPARTURE HE ENCOUNTERED REDUCED VISIBILITY AND ATTEMPTED TO RETURN TO THE JACKSON HOLE AIRPORT. THE AIRCRAFT BEGAN PICKING UP ICE AND SNOW AND THE PILOT WAS UNABLE TO MAINTAIN ALTITUDE AND BEGAN A DESCENT. DURING THE DESCENT, THE AIRCRAFT COLLIDED WITH A TREE AND DESCENDED OUT OF CONTROL TO THE GROUND.
Probable cause
THE PILOT IN COMMAND'S ATTEMPTING FLIGHT INTO KNOWN ADVERSE WEATHER CONDITIONS AND HIS SUBSEQUENT INABILITY TO MAINTAIN ALTITUDE. FACTORS CONTRIBUTING TO THE ACCIDENT WERE ICING CONDITIONS AND TREES.
Verbatim NTSB analysis and probable cause from the NTSB dataset
Sources
NTSB record SEA93LA043
- Event ID
- 20001211X16247
- Case number
- SEA93LA043
- 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: 25ecf06dbfa15025ce082f3ba9dd7e03bc710dea5977bb7d7c2059fbcb4a7593; retrieved 2026-09-21T23:04:07.047Z.