SEA86LA141 · Taylorcraft BCM-12D-85
Taylorcraft BCM-12D-85 · Accident: airframe, component or system failure en route
From WILSON ARM, AK to Ketchikan Harbor Seaplane Base (5KE)
Event
- NTSB case
- SEA86LA141
- 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
Taylorcraft BCM-12D-85
- Aircraft type
- Taylorcraft BCM-12
- 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
- N96336
- Operator
- Unknown
- Onboard fatalities
- Unknown
- Route
- From WILSON ARM, AKTo Ketchikan Harbor Seaplane Base (5KE), KECHIKAN, AK
- 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
- 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
- Landing gear, float assembly › Fatigue
- Landing gear, float assembly › Separation
Approximate · Coordinates as recorded by the NTSB; no uncertainty radius is established.
NTSB narrative
THE PLT FELT A SUDDEN HARD JOLT WHILE IN CRUISE FLT. THE ACFT ASSUMED A NOSE LOW, LEFT WING DOWN ATTITUDE WHICH THE PLT WAS UNABLE TO CORRECT BY USE OF POWER AND CONTROL INPUTS. THE ACFT WAS AT A LOW ALTITUDE DUE TO WEATHER. THE ACFT IMPACTED THE WATER IN A LEFT WING DOWN, NOSE LOW ATTITUDE SHORTLY AFTER THE LOSS OF CONTROL. AFTER THE ACFT WAS RECOVERED IT WAS DISCOVERED THAT THE LEFT FLOAT HAD SEPARATED IN FLIGHT CAUSING A LOSS OF CONTROL. METALLURGICAL EXAMINATION REVEALED PRE-EXISTING FATIGUE CRACKING OF TWO STEEL MEMBERS. THE LOW TENSILE STRENGTH AND MARGINAL QUALITY OF THE STEEL CONTRIBUTED TO THE EARLY FAILURE OF THE FITTNG.
Verbatim NTSB analysis from the NTSB dataset
Sources
NTSB record SEA86LA141
- Event ID
- 20001213X34024
- Case number
- SEA86LA141
- 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: 92cfce374b0d0aca59312cd4e2d1976b3cba6d15819f64f38cc954253b4deb7b; retrieved 2026-09-22T01:23:10.264Z.