SEA83FA038 · Cessna T303
Cessna T303 · Accident: in flight encounter with weather en route
From Portland International Airport (PDX) to Idaho Falls Regional Airport (IDA)
Event
- NTSB case
- SEA83FA038
- 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
- 5 · 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
- Instrument Meteorological Cond
Cessna T303
- Aircraft type
- Cessna 303
- 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
- N6087C
- Operator
- Unknown
- Onboard fatalities
- Unknown
- Route
- From Portland International Airport (PDX), Portland, ORTo Idaho Falls Regional Airport (IDA), Idaho Falls, ID
- 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 · climb to 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
- In flight encounter with weather
- 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
- Aircraft performance › Deteriorated
- Pilot in command › Flight into known adverse weather, continued
- Pilot in command › Spiral, uncontrolled
- Stabilizer › Ice
- Wing › Ice
Approximate · Coordinates as recorded by the NTSB; no uncertainty radius is established.
NTSB narrative
BEFORE TAKEOFF, THE PLT RECEIVED A WX BRIEFING & FILED AN IFR FLT PLAN TO IDAHO FALLS, ID AT 1300 FT. HE TOOK OFF AT 1804 PST. AT 1814 PST, JUST PRIOR TO CALLING LEVEL AT 13,000 FT, HE REPORTED HE WAS ENCOUNTERING LIGHT TURBULENCE & LIGHT RIME ICE. APRX 4 MIN LATER, THE PLT REPORTED EXPERIENCING HEAVY VIBRATIONS. HE REQUESTED & RECEIVED A CLEARANCE TORETURN TO PORTLAND & DESCEND TO 7000 FT. SHORTLY AFTER THAT, THE ACFT ENTERED A TIGHT DESCENDING TURN WHICH THE PLT REPORTED HE WAS HAVING DIFFICULTY ARRESTING. HE REPORTED REGAINING DIRECTIONAL CONTROL AT 6000 FT & SAID THE ACFT HAD A HEAVY LOAD OF ICE. SHORTLY THEREAFTER, THE ACFT CRASHED IN MOUNTAINS AT THE 3130 FT LEVEL. DUE TO DAMAGE FROM IMPACT & WRECKAGE RETRIEVAL, THE PREIMPACT CONDITION OF ALL DEICING COMPONENTS WAS NOT VERIFIED. THE ACFT WAS NOT CERTIFIED FOR FLT IN KNOWN ICING CONDITIONS. MODERATE MIXED ICING CONDITION & MODERATE TURBULENCE WERE FORECAST. THE PLT WAS BRIEFED THERE HAD BEEN REPORTS OF MODERATE ICING THRU-OUT THE AREA.
Verbatim NTSB analysis from the NTSB dataset
Sources
NTSB record SEA83FA038
- Event ID
- 20001214X42087
- Case number
- SEA83FA038
- 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 1983-01-04.
- API snapshot SHA-256: bf5afaffb31f0156a8f74519b26f19a19d5dd3b9047013ec7ed80fea73bd6ba7; retrieved 2026-09-21T07:18:44.368Z.