SEA88LA067 · Cessna 170
Cessna 170 · Accident: in flight encounter with weather en route
From Sacramento Executive Airport (SAC) to Rogue Valley International-Medford Airport (MFR)
Event
- NTSB case
- SEA88LA067
- 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
Cessna 170
- Aircraft type
- Cessna 170
- 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
- N2958D
- Operator
- Unknown
- Onboard fatalities
- Unknown
- Route
- From Sacramento Executive Airport (SAC), Sacramento, CATo Rogue Valley International-Medford Airport (MFR), Medford, OR
- 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
- In flight encounter with weather
- 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
- Visual flight rules (VFR) flight into instrument meteorological conditions (IMC)
- 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 › Hazardous weather advisory, disregarded
- Pilot in command › VFR flight into imc, continued
Approximate · Coordinates as recorded by the NTSB; no uncertainty radius is established.
NTSB narrative
DURING A DARK NIGHT VFR FLIGHT, THE ACFT ENCOUNTERED A SEVERE DOWNDRAFT AND INSTRUMENT METEOROLOGICAL CONDITIONS. WITH FULL POWER THE ACFT DESCENDED, STRIKING TREES BEFORE IT STRUCK THE GROUND. DURING THE PILOT'S PREFLIGHT BRIEFING AND IN-FLIGHT BRIEFING HE WAS TOLD THAT FLIGHT PRECAUTIONS WERE PRESENT BECAUSE OF ICING, TURBULENCE, MOUNTAIN OBSCURATIONS, AND IFR CONDITIONS. IN A POST ACC STATEMENT THE PLT SAID HE WAS DESCENDING FROM 8000 FT MSL TO LAND AT MEDFORD OR FOR REFUELING WHEN HE ENCOUNTERED A STRONG DOWNDRAFT. THIS DESCENT CONTINUED UNTIL ABOUT 2000 FT AGL AT AN AIRSPEED OF 50 MPH. DUE TO LOW AIRSPEED AND TURBULENCE THE PLT DECIDED AGAINST TRYING A 180 DEGREE TURN. IMC WX CONDITIONS WERE ENCOUNTERED IN THE FORM OF FOG AND SNOW. THE PLT TURNED FROM 310 DEGREES TO 300 DEGREES AND BEGAN A CLIMB. AT APRX 6100 FT MSL ANOTHER DOWNDRAFT WAS ENCOUNTERED AND THE ACFT DESCENDED AT ABOUT 60 MPH UNTIL TREES WAS CONTACTED AT APRX 5100 FT. THE WINGS AND TOP OF THE ACFT WERE TORN OFF BUT THE 2 OCCUPANTS SURVIVED.
Verbatim NTSB analysis from the NTSB dataset
Sources
NTSB record SEA88LA067
- Event ID
- 20001213X25358
- Case number
- SEA88LA067
- 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 1988-03-27.
- API snapshot SHA-256: 92fbd7755bab22e5395c2ba958a7874b91e7e15f23789bae4d18907f2b0c5045; retrieved 2026-09-22T00:36:16.916Z.