SEA99LA131 · Piper PA-23-250
Piper PA-23-250 · Accident: airframe, component or system failure during landing
From Wilbur Airport (2S8) to Harvey Field (S43)
Event
- NTSB case
- SEA99LA131
- 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
Piper PA-23-250
- Aircraft type
- Piper PA-23
- 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
- N65PR
- Operator
- William P. Morgan · private individual
- Onboard fatalities
- Unknown
- Route
- From Wilbur Airport (2S8), Wilbur, WATo Harvey Field (S43)
- 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
- Landing · landing roll
- 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
- Substantial
Cause areas
- Landing gear, normal brake system › Failure
Approximate · Coordinates as recorded by the NTSB; no uncertainty radius is established.
NTSB narrative
The pilot reported that the touchdown and rollout were normal for about 300 feet. The pilot stated that as he applied the brakes, the left brake failed and the airplane swerved to the right and off the side of the runway. Due to people and equipment near the runway, and in the aircraft's path, the pilot utilized nose wheel steering and right throttle control to redirect the aircraft. The aircraft continued about 80 feet over freshly graded terrain before entering an open field covered with tall grass. The aircraft collided with a ditch and subsequently an abandoned truck before coming to rest. Shortly after the accident, the brake system was inspected. It was found that the left brake pedal would make full travel with no apparent braking action. After applying pumping action, there was a gradual rise of the pedal and braking action. Further inspection of the system did not reveal any mechanical failures or malfunctions. The brake lines were then bled and a considerable amount of air bubbles were noted.
Probable cause
Brake system failure due to the presence of air bubbles in the hydraulic fluid.
Verbatim NTSB analysis and probable cause from the NTSB dataset
Sources
NTSB record SEA99LA131
- Event ID
- 20001212X19385
- Case number
- SEA99LA131
- 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 1999-07-12.
- API snapshot SHA-256: 9bd9f0a278f5f7662c0a21efdcb12e8db7d7171c4c58371b4f607628b2f00060; retrieved 2026-09-22T14:32:46.580Z.