SEA85FA034 · de Havilland DHC-3 TURBO DHC-3 TURB
de Havilland DHC-3 TURBO DHC-3 TURB · Accident: airframe, component or system failure while maneuvering
From King County International Airport - Boeing Field (BFI) to Boeing Field
Event
- NTSB case
- SEA85FA034
- 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
de Havilland DHC-3 TURBO DHC-3 TURB
- Aircraft type
- de Havilland DHC-3
- 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
- N4247A
- Operator
- Unknown
- Onboard fatalities
- Unknown
- Route
- From King County International Airport - Boeing Field (BFI), Seattle, WATo Boeing Field
- 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
- Maneuvering
- 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
- 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 starvation
- 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
- Fluid, fuel › Starvation
- Fuel system, vent › Blocked(total)
Approximate · Coordinates as recorded by the NTSB; no uncertainty radius is established.
NTSB narrative
ACFT WAS PERFORMING TEST FLT MANEUVERS WHEN PROBLEMS WITH THE MODIFIED FUEL SYSTEM OCCURRED. ICE BLOCKING A FUEL VENT LINE CAUSED A PARTIAL COLLAPSE OF THE MAIN (ENGINE FEED) FUEL CELL WHICH PRODUCED AN ERROUNEOUS FUEL QUANTITY READING. IN ADDITION, THE MAIN TANK OVERFLOW SHUTOFF VALVE WAS LEAKING, SO TANK OVERFLOW OCCURRED. THE FUEL OVERFLOW CAUTION LIGHT ILLUMINATED AND AUXILIARY TANK FUEL PUMP FEED TO MAIN AUTOMATICALLY SHUT DOWN. DUE TO MISCALIBRATION, THIS SYSTEM OVERRODE PLT ATTEMPTS TO RESTART AUX FUEL PUMPS. PLT REMAINED IN TEST AREA TROUBLESHOOTING RATHER THAN IMMEDIATE RETURN TO BASE, FINALLY NOTED MAIN TANK GAGE CONTINUING TO READ 'FULL.' EN ROUTE TO BOEING FIELD, FUEL STARVATION OCCURRED. PLTOPTED TO ATTEMPT FORCED LNDG IN SMALL ATHLETIC FIELD IN RESIDENTIAL AREA RATHER THAN DITCH IN PUGET SOUND. THE ACFT TOUCHED DOWN IN INTENDED LNDG AREA, THEN BOUNCED ACROSS AN ADJACENT STREET. THE ARRESTING ACTION OF TELEPHONE WIRES ON THE VERTICAL FIN BROUGHT THE ACFT TO REST IN A RESIDENTIAL BACKYARD.
Verbatim NTSB analysis from the NTSB dataset
Sources
NTSB record SEA85FA034
- Event ID
- 20001214X41891
- Case number
- SEA85FA034
- Dataset
- historical-pre2008
- Source SHA-256
- 89e2df6d848e7ab3b42e7d7c7a03ff403303057a26ca04c95b3ea67201c3ce74
Source notes (5)
- 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: ea8e7bfaac2f7da95d786435b21ae591ec103108330a084b1c3fcd6f3041271f; retrieved 2026-09-21T17:23:05.352Z.
- Corrected after a review of the NTSB narrative, which states these values explicitly: destination. The narrative states "EN ROUTE TO BOEING FIELD, FUEL STARVATION OCCURRED" as the test flight returned to base; the destination was not recorded.