SEA99FA144 · Beech F33A
Beech F33A · Accident: in flight collision with terrain/water during initial climb
From an unrecorded airport to Othello, WA
Event
- NTSB case
- SEA99FA144
- 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
- Visual Meteorological Cond
Beech F33A
- Aircraft type
- Beechcraft 33
- 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
- N2291L
- Operator
- Dan A. Labbee · private individual
- Onboard fatalities
- Unknown
- Route
- From not recordedTo Othello, 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 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
- Initial climb
- 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
- Pilot in command › Airspeed, low
- Pilot in command › Preflight planning/preparation, inadequate
Approximate · Coordinates as recorded by the NTSB; no uncertainty radius is established.
NTSB narrative
The pilot reported that when he and his passengers arrived at the airstrip, sprinklers were still on the southern half of the airstrip. The pilot had some workers remove the sprinklers while he and his passengers drove to a field to inspect a crop. About 15 minutes later, the pilot returned to the airstrip. The pilot reported that normally he would have driven down the grass strip to check its condition, however, on this day he did not. After the normal pre-flight inspections were complete, the occupants boarded the aircraft. The pilot prepared for the short field takeoff by extending the flaps to 10 degrees, applying power and holding the brakes. The pilot then released the brakes and began the takeoff ground roll from the southern end. The pilot stated that at the beginning of the roll, he noted some soft spots, but did not think it unusual. It wasn't until about 70 percent of the airstrip was used, did the pilot realize that the aircraft was not accelerating fast enough. The aircraft finally became airborne about 150 feet from the end of the airstrip. The airspeed was slow and the stall warning horn was sounding. The pilot held the aircraft level and retracted the landing gear in an effort to clear the four foot high embankment located about 71 feet from the end of the airstrip. The aircraft did not gain the airspeed or altitude necessary to clear the embankment. The pilot reported that there were no mechanical failures or malfunctions with the aircraft at the time of the accident. Post-crash investigation revealed that the aircraft was over gross takeoff weight at the time of the accident. The pilot reported that he did not calculate a weight and balance prior to takeoff.
Probable cause
Inadequate preflight planning/preparation and low airspeed. A dirt embankment, soft runway, and an excessive takeoff weight were factors.
Verbatim NTSB analysis and probable cause from the NTSB dataset
Sources
NTSB record SEA99FA144
- Event ID
- 20001212X19641
- Case number
- SEA99FA144
- 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: 824dce8ff76d30a5e49a2a9201d0ed4324b2aa00b3cf96b549e81e436bb20cfc; retrieved 2026-09-20T21:52:01.607Z.