SEA00FA023 · de Havilland DHC-2 MK. I DHC-2 MK.
de Havilland DHC-2 MK. I DHC-2 MK. · Accident: loss of control in flight while maneuvering
From an unrecorded airport to UNKNOWN
Event
- NTSB case
- SEA00FA023
- 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
de Havilland DHC-2 MK. I DHC-2 MK.
- Aircraft type
- de Havilland DHC-2
- 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
- N666XT
- Operator
- Unknown
- Onboard fatalities
- Unknown
- Route
- From not recordedTo UNKNOWN
- 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
- Loss of control in flight
- 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
- Stall
- 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, not maintained
Approximate · Coordinates as recorded by the NTSB; no uncertainty radius is established.
NTSB narrative
Witnesses reported that following takeoff from a river, the aircraft climbed to approximately 100 to 400 feet above the water, then initiated a left turn of approximately 45 degrees bank. The majority of the witnesses reported that after the aircraft had turned about 180 degrees, its nose abruptly dropped and it impacted the water. Witnesses did not report observing any evidence of problems with the aircraft before impact, and did not report hearing any abnormal engine sounds or sudden changes in engine pitch. Upon water impact, the aircraft went inverted and its cabin submerged. Efforts by witnesses to gain entry to the aircraft cabin to render assistance were unsuccessful due to aircraft damage. Rescue divers found all occupants deceased in the aircraft upon arrival, but were able to remove the two rear-seat victims without removing any passenger restraints. Autopsies disclosed that all four aircraft occupants had drowned. Investigators did not find any evidence of pre-impact aircraft or engine malfunctions during post-accident examinations of the wreckage, but did find that a cabin entry door was jammed shut due to impact damage, and that the range of travel of both pilot doors was restricted by damaged aircraft components.
Probable cause
The pilot's failure to ensure attainment of adequate airspeed prior to initiating a steep turn at low altitude, resulting in an accelerated stall. A factor contributing to the occurrence of the accident was the aircraft's low altitude. Factors contributing to the severity of the accident included a water impact, and jammed/restricted doors due to impact damage resulting in degraded aircraft evacuation capability.
Verbatim NTSB analysis and probable cause from the NTSB dataset
Sources
NTSB record SEA00FA023
- Event ID
- 20001212X20174
- Case number
- SEA00FA023
- 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: 105ad50fcb089b3c75a06a5f726c312892a88c95135572b4b6b08e47d473cd81; retrieved 2026-09-20T21:37:12.988Z.