SEA99LA081 · D. Wayne Smith WAYNCRAFT 14 WAYNCRAFT
D. Wayne Smith WAYNCRAFT 14 WAYNCRAFT · Accident: in flight collision with terrain/water
From Libby Airport (S59) to an unrecorded destination
Event
- NTSB case
- SEA99LA081
- 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
- General aviation
- WeatherVisual meteorological conditions (VMC): good enough to fly by looking outside. Instrument conditions (IMC): cloud or low visibility, flying by instruments. Glossary
- Unknown
D. Wayne Smith WAYNCRAFT 14 WAYNCRAFT
- Aircraft type
- D Wayne Smith WAYNCRAFT 14
- 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
- N58WS
- Operator
- Unknown
- Onboard fatalities
- Unknown
- Route
- From Libby Airport (S59), Libby, MTTo 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
- Unknown
- 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 terrain/water
- DamageDestroyed: beyond practical repair. Substantial: damage that affects the structure, performance or handling and normally needs major repair. Minor: less than that. Glossary
- Substantial
Cause areas
- Reason for occurrence undetermined
Approximate · Coordinates as recorded by the NTSB; no uncertainty radius is established.
NTSB narrative
The airplane went missing on a flight from the airport where an amphibious float installation had just been performed. Its wreckage was located several hours after departure at the 6,100-foot level on a snow-covered ridge in a National Forest wilderness area, 11 nautical miles from the departure airport. The pilot was found dead at the accident scene. Recovery personnel reported that the airplane appeared to have struck trees and impacted going down a 32-degree slope, where it impacted a tree stump in a depression. The recovery crew also reported that all aircraft components were found within about 20 feet of the main wreckage, that there was no evidence of fire, that search-and-rescue personnel (the first persons to reach the site) had reported a strong fuel smell, and that the airplane had good flight control continuity 'as best as could be determined.' Post-accident examinations of the airplane's engine and fuel injection servo disclosed evidence of non-compliance with various FAA Airworthiness Directives and manufacturer's service bulletins, but no clear evidence of any mechanical anomalies or malfunctions. Visual meteorological conditions were reported at a weather observation station 59 nautical miles away from the site during the accident time frame.
Probable cause
Collision with terrain for undetermined reasons.
Verbatim NTSB analysis and probable cause from the NTSB dataset
Sources
NTSB record SEA99LA081
- Event ID
- 20001212X19112
- Case number
- SEA99LA081
- 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: 4ecfe604474d46c556a62ae63f8ac6ec84b00290c8e67af94a5bb80bbb38e5b4; retrieved 2026-09-20T22:04:07.685Z.