Airpac Airlines Piper PA-34-200T accident
Piper PA-34-200T · Accident: airframe, component or system failure en route
From Spokane International Airport (GEG) to King County International Airport - Boeing Field (BFI)
Event
- NTSB case
- SEA91FA099
- 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
- Charter & commuter
- 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
Piper PA-34-200T
- Aircraft type
- Piper PA-34
- 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
- N2859M
- Operator
- Airpac Airlines
- Onboard fatalities
- Unknown
- Route
- From Spokane International Airport (GEG), Spokane, WATo King County International Airport - Boeing Field (BFI), Seattle, 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 135: Air Taxi & Commuter
- 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 · descent
- 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 › Airspeed(vne), exceeded
Approximate · Coordinates as recorded by the NTSB; no uncertainty radius is established.
NTSB narrative
WHILE DESCENDING FROM 6,000 FT MSL, THE PILOT CANCELED IFR AND WAS CLEARED FOR A VFR APPROACH TO BOEING FIELD, SEATTLE. RADIO AND RADAR CONTACT WAS LOST AT 2,600 FT MSL. THE WRECKAGE WAS LOCATED 14.8 MI FROM THE DESTINATION. BOTH WINGS AND THE STABILATOR HAD SEPARATED IN FLIGHT. A PERFORMANCE STUDY INDICATES THAT THE IN-FLIGHT BREAKUP OCCURRED AT 5,100 FT DURING A DESCENT AT 205 KTS IAS. VNE FOR THIS AIRPLANE IS 195 KTS IAS. THE ROUTE DESCRIPTION FOR THE FLIGHT INDICATES THAT AFTER LANDING AT BOEING FIELD, BURLINGTON NORTHERN FREIGHT MUST BE TRANSFERED VIA VEHICLE TO THE SEATAC AIRPORT WITH A DELIVERY DEADLINE OF 2230. AFT CG WAS EXCEEDED BY 1.68 IN.
Probable cause
THE IN-FLIGHT BREAKUP OF THE AIRPLANE AS A RESULT OF THE PILOT EXCEEDING THE SPEED AND STRESS LIMITS FOR THE AIRPLANE. A FACTOR RELATING TO THE ACCIDENT WAS THE CENTER OF GRAVITY LOADING THAT EXCEEDED THE AFT LIMITS.
Verbatim NTSB analysis and probable cause from the NTSB dataset
Sources
NTSB record SEA91FA099
- Event ID
- 20001212X17112
- Case number
- SEA91FA099
- 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 1991-05-07.
- API snapshot SHA-256: b283d139eb5cb501ec877b6a0565bfb4d7e33e9d1d4a42641c9c09c783ac29af; retrieved 2026-09-18T14:03:38.223Z.