SEA89LA097 · Aero Commander 112
Aero Commander 112 · Accident: dragged wing, rotor, pod, float or tail/skid during landing
Event
- NTSB case
- SEA89LA097
- 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
Aero Commander 112
- Aircraft type
- Aero Commander 112
- 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
- N1068J
- Operator
- Unknown
- Onboard fatalities
- Unknown
- Route
- From not recordedTo 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
- Landing · flare/touchdown
- 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
- Dragged wing, rotor, pod, float or tail/skid
- 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
- Pilot in command › Go-around, delayed
- Pilot in command › Impairment(alcohol)
- Pilot in command › Judgment, poor
Approximate · Coordinates as recorded by the NTSB; no uncertainty radius is established.
NTSB narrative
ACCORDING TO THE PLT, WHEN HE WAS FLARING TO LAND ON RWY 3 AT DUSK, A GUST OF WIND BLEW THE ACFT TO THE RIGHT. HE SAID HE APPLIED POWER TO GO AROUND, BUT WAS TOO LOW & SLOW TO REGAIN ALTITUDE. SUBSEQUENTLY, A WINGTIP CONTACTED THE GROUND, SWINGING THE ACFT AROUND, & IT CRASH LANDED. THE PLT RPRTD THE PREVAILING WIND WAS FROM THE NORTH AT 8 KTS. AUTHORITIES, WHO ARRIVED AFTER THE ACCIDENT, RPRTD THE WIND WAS FROM THE SOUTHWEST AT 15 TO 25 KTS. A POLICE OFFICER, WHO WAS THE 1ST TO ARRIVE, NOTED A STRONG ODOR OF ALCOHOL FROM THE PLT & THAT HE WAS UNABLE TO WALK NORMALLY (WITHOUT STAGGERING), ALTHOUGH HE WAS NOT INJURED. OTHER OFFICIALS CORROBORATED THE POLICE OFFICER'S OBSERVATION. THE PLT REFUSED TO TAKE A BREATHALYZER TEST.
Probable cause
POOR JUDGEMENT OF THE PILOT BY FLYING, WHILE IMPAIRED FROM CONSUMPTION OF ALCOHOL, AND HIS DELAY IN INITIATING A GO-AROUND WHEN THE AIRCRAFT DRIFTED TO THE RIGHT OF THE RUNWAY. RELATED FACTORS WERE: LIGHT CONDITIONS AT DUSK, UNFAVORABLE WINDS, AND FAILURE OF THE PILOT TO MAINTAIN RUNWAY ALIGNMENT WHILE LANDING.
Verbatim NTSB analysis and probable cause from the NTSB dataset
Sources
NTSB record SEA89LA097
- Event ID
- 20001213X28668
- Case number
- SEA89LA097
- 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 1989-06-04.
- API snapshot SHA-256: a57b7b2634852d15e5b31ad609f04f2d7c949ae2c82c8187e85ffa661a2307b5; retrieved 2026-09-23T07:32:29.744Z.