SEA89FA068 · Lake LA-4-200-EP LA-4-200-E
Lake Aircraft Lake LA-4-200-EP LA-4-200-E · Accident: total loss of engine power (non-mechanical) during initial climb
From Renton Municipal Airport (RNT) to an unrecorded destination
Event
- NTSB case
- SEA89FA068
- 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
- 2 · 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
Lake LA-4-200-EP LA-4-200-E
- Aircraft type
- Lake LA-4
- 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
- N8521Z
- Operator
- Lake Aircraft
- Onboard fatalities
- Unknown
- Route
- From Renton Municipal Airport (RNT), Renton, 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
- Initial climb
- 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
- Total loss of engine power (non-mechanical)
- 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(cfi) › Aircraft control, not maintained
- Pilot in command(cfi) › Stall/spin, inadvertent
- Reason for occurrence undetermined
Approximate · Coordinates as recorded by the NTSB; no uncertainty radius is established.
NTSB narrative
THE INSTRUCTOR PLT (CFI) HAD BEEN TRAINING THE STUDENT, WHO WAS A CERTIFICATED PLT, BUT NOT SEAPLANE RATED. WITNESSES RPRTD THAT AS THE ACFT DEPARTED LAKE SAMMAMISH, THE ENG MADE UNUSUAL SOUNDS, THEN IT BECAME SILENT. ONE WITNESS RPRTD HESAW THE AIRPLANE SPINNING IN A FLAT ATTITUDE. AN INVESTIGATION REVEALED NO PREIMPACT PART FAILURE, BUT DURING A TEST, THE SPARK PLUGS WOULD NOT FIRE CONTINUOUSLY AT THE MIMIMUM ALLOWABLE OPERATIONAL PRESSURE. THE ACFT HAD BEEN EQUIPPED WITH AN EXTENDED PROPELLER HUB IN ACCORDANCE WITH STC #SA4NE. THIS MODIFICATION EXTENDED THE PROPELLER REARWARD BY 4 INCHES. THE ACFT HAD FLOWN 255 HRS SINCE IT WAS LAST INSPECTED.
Probable cause
LOSS OF ENGINE POWER FOR AN UNDETERMINED REASON AND FAILURE OF THE INSTRUCTOR PILOT (CFI) TO MAINTAIN CONTROL OF THE AIRCRAFT, WHICH RESULTED IN A STALL/SPIN.
Verbatim NTSB analysis and probable cause from the NTSB dataset
Sources
NTSB record SEA89FA068
- Event ID
- 20001213X28199
- Case number
- SEA89FA068
- 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: cf27a35228a8e08c0a580358f1264e91ce77683dcf8ef2f0ab5370c82bb719e3; retrieved 2026-09-21T03:21:00.801Z.