SEA83FA118 · Piper PA28RT-201T PA28RT-201
Piper PA28RT-201T PA28RT-201 · Accident: in flight encounter with weather en route
From Seattle–Tacoma International Airport (SEA) to SEA · Jackson, CA
Event
- NTSB case
- SEA83FA118
- 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
- 4 · 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
Piper PA28RT-201T PA28RT-201
- Aircraft type
- Piper PA28
- 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
- N8402P
- Operator
- Unknown
- Onboard fatalities
- Unknown
- Route
- From Seattle–Tacoma International Airport (SEA), Seattle, WATo SEA · Jackson, CA
- 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
- 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
- Pilot in command › Design stress limits of aircraft, exceeded
- Pilot in command › In-flight planning/decision, improper
- Pilot in command › Overconfidence in personal ability
Approximate · Coordinates as recorded by the NTSB; no uncertainty radius is established.
NTSB narrative
WX CONDITIONS ALONG THE FLT ROUTE INDICATED CEILINGS OF 25,000 FT & UNRESTRICTED VISIBILITY EXCEPT FOR THE AREA SOUTH & WEST OF MOUNT HOOD. MOUNT HOOD, ELEVATION 11,239 FT MSL, ON THE SW SIDE OF GOVERNMENT CAMP & CLEAR LAKE (ACCIDENT SITE),WAS COVERED BY CLOUDS. ACCORDING TO WITNESSES, A CLASSIC TOWERING CUMULONIMBUS EXISTED OVER MOUNT HOOD. AT CLEAR LAKE, ABOUT 15 MI SOUTH OF MOUNT HOOD, IT WAS RAINING WITH HAIL & LIGHTNING, WITH A CEILING ESTIMATED AT ABOUT 300 FT WITNESSES AT CLEAR LAKE REPORTED THE STORM WAS IN PROGRESS FOR SOME TIME BEFORE THE ACFT 'FELL OUT OF THE CLOUDS' INTO THE LAKE. MOST OF THE RECOVERED WRECKAGE WAS FOUND IN CLEAR LAKE BY SCUBA DIVERS IN AN AREA 3600 FT BY 800 FT. WRECKAGE DISTRIBUTION INDICATED GENERAL DISINTEGRATION INFLIGHT PRIOR TO IMPACT.
Verbatim NTSB analysis from the NTSB dataset
Sources
NTSB record SEA83FA118
- Event ID
- 20001214X43521
- Case number
- SEA83FA118
- 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 1983-06-08.
- API snapshot SHA-256: 5150e50ec3ef0315ec698622cab43a2413d4f808a71bbd68e4742ee4cdb697c3; retrieved 2026-09-21T06:41:34.112Z.