SEA86FA066 · Piper PA34-200T
Piper PA34-200T · Accident: in flight collision with terrain/water en route
From Portland International Airport (PDX) to 350R · RAJNEESHPURAM, OR
Event
- NTSB case
- SEA86FA066
- 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
Piper PA34-200T
- Aircraft type
- Piper PA34
- 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
- N8305C
- Operator
- Unknown
- Onboard fatalities
- Unknown
- Route
- From Portland International Airport (PDX), Portland, ORTo 350R · RAJNEESHPURAM, 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 · descent
- 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 collision with terrain/water
- 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 › Altitude, misjudged
- Pilot in command › Clearance, misjudged
Approximate · Coordinates as recorded by the NTSB; no uncertainty radius is established.
NTSB narrative
PLT WAS OPERATING VFR ON TOP AT 11000 FEET, COMMENCED DESCENT TO DESTINATION 34 MILES OUT. PLT RPTED FIELD IN SIGHT 16 MILES OUT, PASSING 6500 FT, CANCELLED FLIGHT PLAN. ACFT IMPACTED RIDGE AT 4100 FEET MSL 7 MILES FROM DESTINATION. DARK NIGHT CONDS EXISTED, WITH OVERCAST ABOVE BROKEN CLOUDS. RESIDENTS REPORTED MODERATE DRIZZLE IN AREA AT TIME OF CRASH. FORECAST INCLUDED MODERATE TURBULENCE BELOW 15000 FEET WITH STRONG UP AND DOWN DRAFTS NEAR MOUNTAINS, MOUNTAINS OBSCURED IN CLOUDS AND PRECIPITATION. RADAR TRACK SHOWED ACFT SPD DURING DESCENT IN EXCESS OF 200 KTS, RATE OF DESCENT UP TO 1200 FEET PER MINUTE. WRECKAGE INDICATES ACFT STRUCK STEEP ROCKY SLOPE IN NOSE-HIGH ATTITUDE WITH POWER ON.
Verbatim NTSB analysis from the NTSB dataset
Sources
NTSB record SEA86FA066
- Event ID
- 20001213X32945
- Case number
- SEA86FA066
- 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 1986-02-26.
- API snapshot SHA-256: f0f1d8e19179640d04c20dac427782b35be6c8ae03a72e847aa92624737ddcca; retrieved 2026-09-21T04:39:40.499Z.