SEA91FA027 · Aero Commander 690A
Aero Air Aero Commander 690A · Accident: in flight collision with terrain/water en route
From an unrecorded airport to Southwest Washington Regional Airport (KLS)
Event
- NTSB case
- SEA91FA027
- 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
- 5 · 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
Aero Commander 690A
- Aircraft type
- Aero Commander 690
- 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
- N400N
- Operator
- Aero Air
- Onboard fatalities
- Unknown
- Route
- From not recordedTo Southwest Washington Regional Airport (KLS), Kelso, 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
- En route · descent
- 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
- Destroyed
Cause areas
- Pilot in command › In-flight planning/decision, improper
- Pilot in command › Proper altitude, not maintained
Approximate · Coordinates as recorded by the NTSB; no uncertainty radius is established.
NTSB narrative
AS THE FLT WAS APCHG THE DESTN, AT NGT, THE PLT OBTAINED VECTORS FOR A DSCNT OVER MOUNTAINOUS TERRAIN. DURING THE APCH, HE CANCELLED THE IFR FLT PLAN & THE ACFT DSNDD BELOW RADAR COVERAGE. SUBSEQUENTLY, THE ACFT CRASHED IN MOUNTAINOUS TERRAIN, NORTHWEST OF THE DESTN ARPT. IMPACT OCCURRED IN A WOODED AREA AT AN ELEVATION OF ABOUT 2700 FT. THE ELT DID NOT ACTIVATE DURING THE ACDNT. A SEARCH WAS INITIATED ON 12/1/90, BUT THE ACFT & SURVIVING PASSENGER WERE NOT FND UNTIL THE NEXT DAY. THE CANADIAN ATP PLT & OTHER 4 PASSENGERS WERE FATALLY INJURED. AFTER INITIAL IMPACT WITH TREES, THE MAIN PORTION OF THE FUSELAGE TRAVELED ABOUT 1000 FT BEFORE COMING TO REST. NO PREIMPACT MECHANICAL PROBLEM WAS FOUND.
Probable cause
THE PILOT'S IMPROPER INFLIGHT PLANNING AND FAILURE TO MAINTAIN PROPER ALTITUDE IN MOUNTAINOUS TERRAIN AT NIGHT.
Verbatim NTSB analysis and probable cause from the NTSB dataset
Sources
NTSB record SEA91FA027
- Event ID
- 20001212X24698
- Case number
- SEA91FA027
- 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 1990-12-01.
- API snapshot SHA-256: 4ccc18271cacbd6dc2ec6d4dc11d7d0378949920bd44e77b48cc7b98aca112d9; retrieved 2026-09-21T02:03:45.578Z.