SEA92FA002 · Cessna 172G
Cessna 172G · Accident: in flight collision with object while maneuvering
From Walla Walla Regional Airport (ALW) to an unrecorded destination
Event
- NTSB case
- SEA92FA002
- 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
- 4 · 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 172G
- Aircraft type
- Cessna 172
- 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
- N1372F
- Operator
- Charles W. Wolfkiel · private individual
- Onboard fatalities
- Unknown
- Route
- From Walla Walla Regional Airport (ALW), Walla Walla, WATo not recorded
- 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
- 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 › In-flight planning/decision, inadequate
Approximate · Coordinates as recorded by the NTSB; no uncertainty radius is established.
NTSB narrative
DURING A PLEASURE FLIGHT, THE AIRPLANE WAS OBSERVED FLYING JUST ABOVE THE TREE LINE IN A VALLEY APPROXIMATELY 1,000 FEET BELOW THE RIDGE LINE. THE AIRPLANE CONTINUED TO TRAVEL THROUGH THIS VALLEY WHICH LED INTO A BOX CANYON. THE AIRPLANE THEN MADE AN APPROXIMATE 45 DEGREE BANKING RIGHT TURN, AND ALMOST COMPLETED THE 180 DEGREE TURN WHEN IT COLLIDED WITH THE TREES AND SUBSEQUENTLY THE TERRAIN. THE WINESSES REPORTED THAT THE ENGINE WAS RUNNING NORMALLY THE ENTIRE TIME AND THAT THE AIRPLANE APPEARED TO BE UNDER CONTROL UNTIL THE TURNING MANEUVER.
Probable cause
INADEQUATE IN-FLIGHT PLANNING. FACTORS TO THE ACCIDENT WERE: MOUNTAINOUS TERRAIN, CLEARANCE NOT MAINTAINED, LACK OF TOTAL FLIGHT EXPERIENCE, AND LACK OF FAMILIARITY WITH GEOGRAPHICAL AREA.
Verbatim NTSB analysis and probable cause from the NTSB dataset
Sources
NTSB record SEA92FA002
- Event ID
- 20001212X18385
- Case number
- SEA92FA002
- 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 1991-10-06.
- API snapshot SHA-256: 99caaa18f8c9e3033f1fbd02cd2d543cfadada7f9e87644a47c77ae64791ab99; retrieved 2026-09-21T01:31:43.691Z.