SEA85FA156 · Kibler-Bede BD-5B
Kibler-Bede BD-5B · Accident: total loss of engine power (mechanical failure)
From Norman Grier Field (S36) to an unrecorded destination
Event
- NTSB case
- SEA85FA156
- 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
- 1 · 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
Kibler-Bede BD-5B
- Aircraft type
- Kibler Bede BD-5
- 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
- N5KB
- Operator
- Unknown
- Onboard fatalities
- Unknown
- Route
- From Norman Grier Field (S36), Kent, 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
- Unknown
- 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 (mechanical 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
- Fuel contamination; Stall
- 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
- Fluid, fuel › Contamination
- Fluid, fuel › Water
- Pilot in command › Aircraft preflight, inadequate
- Pilot in command › Airspeed, not maintained
- Pilot in command › Stall, inadvertent
Approximate · Estimated position: the centre of Oak Harbor, WA, the place the record names. Not the accident site.
NTSB narrative
PRIOR TO THE ACDNT, WITNESSES APRX 9 MI SW OF THE CRASH SITE SAW AN ACFT (MATCHING THE DESCRIPTION OF N5KB) FLYING AT ABOUT 100 TO 200 FT OVER THE WATER ON A NE HEADING. IT THEN PULLED UP IN A STEEP CLIMBING TURN TOWARD THE SHORELINE. NO KNOWN WITNESSES SAW THE ACDNT; HOWEVER, SEVERAL PERSONS CLEARLY HEARD THE ENG SPUTTERING OR CUTTING IN & OUT JUST PRIOR THE THE CRASH. AN EXAM OF THE CRASH SITE REVEALED THE ACFT HAD IMPACTED IN TREES WHILE IN A STEEP DESCENT. NO PREIMPACT PART FAILURE OR MALFUNCTION WAS FOUND THAT WOULD HAVE CAUSED A LOSS OF CONTROL. THE ACFT WAS EQUIPPED WITH A 3 CYLINDER, 2 CYCLE, RECIPROCATING ENG WHICH HAD 3 CARBURETORS. WATER & FOREIGN MATERIAL WERE FOUND IN THE BOWLS OF ALL 3 CARBURETORS. ALSO, THE ACFT FUEL FILTER WAS FOUND TO BE CONTAMINATED WITH WATER & FOREIGN MATERIAL. DURING AN ENG TEARDOWN, EVIDENCE OF OVERHEATING & SCOURING OF THE #3 PISTON & CYLINDER WAS ALSO NOTED.
Verbatim NTSB analysis from the NTSB dataset
Sources
NTSB record SEA85FA156
- Event ID
- 20001214X36914
- Case number
- SEA85FA156
- 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: c60765c88b13811c65136cf5d999bdcedcb2898be33cd1b49af027c3559a518f; retrieved 2026-09-21T04:57:30.773Z.