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SEA91LA034 · Beech D50C

15 Dec 1990 · Snohomish, WA, United States

Snohomish Parachute CTR Beech D50C · Accident en route

From Harvey Field (S43) to an unrecorded destination

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Event

NTSB case
SEA91LA034
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 D50C

Aircraft type
Beechcraft 50
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
N833Q
Onboard fatalities
Unknown
Route
From Harvey Field (S43), Snohomish, WATo 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
En route · cruise
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
Miscellaneous/other
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

  • Company/operator management › Maintenance, modification, improper
  • Door › Other
  • Miscellaneous eqpt/furnishings, parachute/drag chute › Deployed inadvertently
  • Passenger › Unsafe/hazardous condition, not identified
  • Pilot in command › Aircraft preflight, inadequate

Approximate · Coordinates as recorded by the NTSB; no uncertainty radius is established.

NTSB narrative

DURING A SKYDIVING OPERATION, THE AIRCRAFT WAS SLOWED TO SLOW CRUISE FLIGHT FOR A PARACHUTE JUMP. AS SKYDIVERS WERE MOVING TO THE EXIT DOOR FOR A GROUP JUMP, THE D-RING OF ONE SKYDIVER'S RESERVE PARACHUTE BECAME ENTANGLED ON A PROTRUDING CABIN DOOR SUPPORT BRACKET. THE RESERVE CHUTE DEPLOYED & WAS CAUGHT IN THE SLIP STREAM. THE SKYDIVER WAS THEN PULLED FROM THE OPEN DOOR. HE IMPACTED THE RIGHT HORIZONTAL STABILIZER, FELL 4000 FT TO THE GROUND & WAS FATALLY INJURED. MOST OF THE RIGHT STABILIZER WAS TORN FROM THE AIRCRAFT. AFTER ITS SEPARATION, THE AIRCRAFT ENTERED A DIVE & THE REMAINING SKYDIVERS JUMPED FROM THE PLANE. ONE OF THE OTHER SKYDIVERS WAS IN THE DOORWAY WHEN THE ACCIDENT SEQUENCE BEGAN. HE HELD ONTO THE AIRCRAFT FOR A MOMENT AS IT SHUDDERED & STARTED TO DIVE, THEN 'LET GO.' DURING THE OCCURRENCE, HE RECEIVED A MINOR INJURY. THE PILOT REGAINED CONTROL OF THE AIRCRAFT & MADE AN EMERGENCY LANDING AT AN AIRPORT WITH A LONG RUNWAY.

Probable cause

THE OBSTRUCTION (PROTRUDING DOOR SUPPORT BRACKET) IN THE DOORWAY OF THE AIRCRAFT; FAILURE OF THE COMPANY/OPERATOR PERSONNEL, THE PILOT, AND THE SKYDIVERS TO ASSURE THAT THE DOORWAY WAS CLEAR OF OBSTRUCTIONS; AND SUBSEQUENT SNAGGING OF THE D-RING, WHICH RESULTED IN INADVERTENT DEPLOYMENT OF THE PASSENGER'S (SKYDIVER'S) RESERVE PARACHUTE.

Verbatim NTSB analysis and probable cause from the NTSB dataset

Sources

NTSB record SEA91LA034
Event ID
20001212X24824
Case number
SEA91LA034
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: fd418198fcde2bf18e937825ae0901a4917218dd8265da01339bff7af97aca23; retrieved 2026-09-21T02:03:07.494Z.