SEA92FA022 · Cessna 150E
Evergreen Flying SVC Cessna 150E and Mill Plain Flying SVC Cessna 172M · Accident: midair collision on approach
Event
- NTSB case
- SEA92FA022
- 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
- Visual Meteorological Cond
Aircraft 1 · Cessna 150E
- 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
- N2582J
- Operator
- Evergreen Flying SVC
- Onboard fatalities
- Unknown
- Route
- From not recordedTo 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
- Approach · VFR pattern final
- 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
- Midair collision
- DamageDestroyed: beyond practical repair. Substantial: damage that affects the structure, performance or handling and normally needs major repair. Minor: less than that. Glossary
- Destroyed
Aircraft 2 · Cessna 172M
- 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
- N20938
- Operator
- Mill Plain Flying SVC
- Onboard fatalities
- Unknown
- Route
- From not recordedTo 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
- Approach · VFR pattern final
- 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
- Midair collision
- 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
- Dual student › Visual lookout, inadequate
- Pilot in command › Visual lookout, inadequate
- Pilot in command(cfi) › Visual lookout, inadequate
- Pilot of other aircraft › Visual lookout, inadequate
Approximate · Coordinates as recorded by the NTSB; no uncertainty radius is established.
NTSB narrative
THE CESSNA 172 HAD ENTERED THE PATTERN ON DOWNWIND AND WAS ESTABLISHED ON A LONG FINAL FOR RUNWAY 10L. THE CESSNA 150 WHICH WAS RETURNING FROM AN INSTRUCTIONAL FLIGHT, WAS OBSERVED EXECUTING A CLOSE IN BASE LEG AND DESCENDING STEEPLY. THE CESSNA 150'S LEFT WING IMPACTED THE CESSNA 172'S DORSAL FIN AND VERTICAL STABILIZER ON SHORT FINAL. THE CESSNA 172 WAS OBSERVED TO COMPLETE APPROXIMATELY 270 DEGREES OF A LOOP BEFORE IMPACTING THE GROUND. THE CESSNA 150 ROLLED LEFT AND IMPACTED THE GROUND IN A NOSE LOW INVERTED ATTITUDE. BOTH AIRCRAFT HAD ONLY THEIR SINGLE ANTI COLLISION BEACONS OPERATING BUT NOT THEIR TAXI/LANDING LIGHTS. THE CESSNA 172'S STROBE LIGHT WAS NOT SWITCHED ON AT THE TIME OF THE ACCIDENT. THE SUN'S ELEVATION WAS DETERMINED TO BE 5 TO 7 DEGREES ABOVE THE HORIZON AT AN AZIMUTH OF 212 TO 215 DEGREES MAGNETIC.
Probable cause
INADEQUATE VISUAL LOOKOUT ON THE PART OF BOTH THE FLIGHT INSTRUCTOR AND STUDENT AS WELL AS THE PILOT OF THE OTHER AIRCRAFT. FACTORS CONTRIBUTING TO THE ACCIDENT WERE SUN GLARE AND THE OTHER PILOT'S LACK OF LANDING/STROBE LIGHT USAGE.
Verbatim NTSB analysis and probable cause from the NTSB dataset
Sources
NTSB record SEA92FA022
- Event ID
- 20001212X18523
- Case number
- SEA92FA022
- 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: fe6562cf2eeea9d3fd9eb6fb44645b2330a6750e16a48cf0df7dc307762b3958; retrieved 2026-09-21T15:14:07.417Z.