SEA89FA053 · Piper PA-60-601P
Piper PA-60-601P · Accident: airframe, component or system failure en route
From Portland International Airport (PDX) to Reno Tahoe International Airport (RNO)
Event
- NTSB case
- SEA89FA053
- 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
- 3 · 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
- Instrument Meteorological Cond
Piper PA-60-601P
- Aircraft type
- Piper PA-60
- 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
- CFHGH
- Operator
- Unknown
- Onboard fatalities
- Unknown
- Route
- From Portland International Airport (PDX), Portland, ORTo Reno Tahoe International Airport (RNO), Reno, NV
- 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
- Airframe, component or system failure
- 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
- Stall/spin
- 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 › Aircraft control, not maintained
- Pilot in command › Stall/spin, inadvertent
Approximate · Coordinates as recorded by the NTSB; no uncertainty radius is established.
NTSB narrative
WHILE EN ROUTE, THE PLT ENCTRD HEADWINDS & TRACE RIME ICING. HE MADE A CLIMB FROM 17,000 FT TO FLT 190, THEN TO FL 210. AFTER CRUISING AT FL 210 FOR ABOUT 27 MIN, THE ACFT ENTERED A DSCNT (W/O ATC CLNC). RADIO & RADAR CONTACT WERE LOST IN THE VCNTY OF WERE THE ACFT CRASHED. JUST BEFORE IMPACT, THE ACFT WAS OBSERVED TO DSCND OUT OF LOW CLOUDS IN A SPIN. THE PLT HAD BEEN ISSUED A CANADIAN INSTRUMENT RATING ON 1/11/88, BUT IT WAS VALID FOR ONLY 12 MOS. A PERSON, WHO HAD GIVEN THE PLT PROFICIENCY FLT TRAINING IN PREPARATION FOR AN INSTRUMENT QUALIFICATION CHECK, REPORTED THAT HE HAD RESERVATIONS ABOUT THE PLT'S ABILITY TO FLY IN INSTRUMENT CONDITIONS WITHOUT AN AUTOPLT. AVIONICS PERSONNEL AT THE DEPARTURE ARPT RPRTD THE PLT HAD ENCTRD AN AUTOPLT MALFUNCTION ON THE PREVIOUS FLT & THAT THEY HAD FOUND AN ELEC SHORT IN THE AUTOPLT DISCONNECT SW ON THE COPLT CTL YOKE. HOWEVER, THEY WERE UNABLE TO REPAIR IT DUE TO LACK OF A REPLACEMENT PART. RPRTDLY, THE PLT BARROWED A SOLDERING IRON TO REPAIR IT HIMSELF.
Probable cause
FAILURE OF THE PILOT TO MAINTAIN CONTROL OF THE AIRCRAFT, WHICH RESULTED IN A SPIN AND AN UNCONTROLLED DESCENT. FACTORS RELATED TO THE ACCIDENT WERE: IMPROPER MAINTENENCE BY THE PILOT, AN AUTOPILOT MALFUNCTION, THE ADVERSE WEATHER CONDITIONS, CONTINUED FLIGHT BY THE PILOT INTO ADVERSE WEATHER CONDITIONS, AND HIS LACK OF RECENT INSTRUMENT EXPERIENCE.
Verbatim NTSB analysis and probable cause from the NTSB dataset
Sources
NTSB record SEA89FA053
- Event ID
- 20001213X27997
- Case number
- SEA89FA053
- 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: dbfa53089c813ba2ed3a57e64886e7b01df834164fbc8fbc90ed9e34e9f1ddbc; retrieved 2026-09-21T03:23:39.787Z.