SEA00LA179 · Cessna 172P
Cessna 172P and Cessna 182J · Accident: collision between aircraft (not in flight) while taxiing
Event
- NTSB case
- SEA00LA179
- 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
Aircraft 1 · Cessna 172P
- Aircraft type
- Cessna 172
- 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
- N53201
- Operator
- Unknown
- Onboard fatalities
- Unknown
- Route
- From FHRTo King County International Airport - Boeing Field (BFI), Seattle, 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
- Taxi · to runway
- 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
- Collision between aircraft (not in flight)
- DamageDestroyed: beyond practical repair. Substantial: damage that affects the structure, performance or handling and normally needs major repair. Minor: less than that. Glossary
- Substantial
Aircraft 2 · Cessna 182J
- Aircraft type
- Cessna 182
- 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
- N3347F
- Operator
- Gary A. Card · private individual
- Onboard fatalities
- Unknown
- Route
- From UNKNOWNTo FHR
- 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
- Standing · engine(s) operating
- 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
- Collision between aircraft (not in flight)
- DamageDestroyed: beyond practical repair. Substantial: damage that affects the structure, performance or handling and normally needs major repair. Minor: less than that. Glossary
- Minor
Cause areas
- Pilot in command › Clearance, not maintained
- Pilot of other aircraft › Clearance, not maintained
Approximate · Coordinates as recorded by the NTSB; no uncertainty radius is established.
NTSB narrative
The Cessna 172 (N53201) was taxiing south toward the active runway (16). The Cessna 172 pilot reported that as he approached the airport's fuel island, he noted an aircraft fueling on the outside (taxiway side) of the fueling island. He also stated that he noted a Cessna 182 (N3347F) taxiing toward him, coming north. The Cessna 172 pilot reported that the Cessna 182 'continued to taxi for a moment and then stopped, engine idling, somewhat off the left side of the taxiway, but not off the hard surface and abeam and directly across from the fueling aircraft', which, according to the Cessna 172 pilot, 'considerably narrowed the available taxiway.' The Cessna 172 pilot reported that he then attempted to taxi between the Cessna 182 and the aircraft at the fueling island. As the Cessna 172 pilot attempted to taxi between the two aircraft, the Cessna 172's left wing struck the Cessna 182's left wing.
Probable cause
The Cessna 172 pilot's failure to maintain clearance with the Cessna 182. Factors included aircraft parked/standing on the taxiway and the refueling area, and a congested/confined taxiway.
Verbatim NTSB analysis and probable cause from the NTSB dataset
Sources
NTSB record SEA00LA179
- Event ID
- 20001212X22073
- Case number
- SEA00LA179
- 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: 42eda7d655647500d89b0cbfe56be1d92be8945b5abcc8ef0ba99496ea029d65; retrieved 2026-09-22T12:27:21.396Z.