SEA00LA128 · Keith Kinden REBEL
Keith Kinden REBEL · Accident: airframe, component or system failure on approach
From Libby Airport (S59) to an unrecorded destination
Event
- NTSB case
- SEA00LA128
- 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
Keith Kinden REBEL
- Aircraft type
- Keith Kinden REBEL
- 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
- N6317Y
- 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
- 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
- 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
- Owner/builder › Maintenance, installation, improper
Approximate · Coordinates as recorded by the NTSB; no uncertainty radius is established.
NTSB narrative
The flight instructor reported that he took over the controls from the second pilot just prior to landing on the water due to the aircraft was turning left. The flight instructor applied right rudder control to correct for the left turn, however, there was no rudder response. The flight instructor continued the landing with the aircraft in a left turn and left wing low attitude. After the aircraft touched down, it spun to the left. The aircraft heeled over to the right about 30 degrees with the right wing in the water. The aircraft then righted itself and returned to level attitude. After the aircraft was recovered, the flight instructor, who is also the builder of the aircraft, reported that the right side rudder control cable had pulled out of the Nicopress sleeve at the rudder pedal. The instructor also reported that he had purchased the kit partially constructed, and that the flight control cables had already been completed at the time of the purchase.
Probable cause
An improper installation of a rudder control cable Nicopress sleeve by the owner/builder. The rudder control cable disconnection and the slipped cable from the sleeve were factors.
Verbatim NTSB analysis and probable cause from the NTSB dataset
Sources
NTSB record SEA00LA128
- Event ID
- 20001212X21607
- Case number
- SEA00LA128
- 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: 3ee07fa6fc1db8e8b9a73d8ddfb4e1e14b5d9b9b9253364fe074bea8405cd4ce; retrieved 2026-09-22T12:42:28.367Z.