SEA84LA001 · Beech A23
Beech A23 · Accident: in flight encounter with weather en route
From Great Falls International Airport (GTF) to Jackpot Airport/Hayden Field (06U)
Event
- NTSB case
- SEA84LA001
- 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
Beech A23
- Aircraft type
- Beechcraft 23
- 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
- N4773J
- Operator
- Unknown
- Onboard fatalities
- Unknown
- Route
- From Great Falls International Airport (GTF), Great Falls, MTTo Jackpot Airport/Hayden Field (06U), Jackpot, NV
- 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
- 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 exhaustion
- 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 › Exhaustion
- Pilot in command › Fuel supply, inadequate
- Pilot in command › In-flight planning/decision, improper
- Pilot in command › Preflight planning/preparation, inadequate
Approximate · Coordinates as recorded by the NTSB; no uncertainty radius is established.
NTSB narrative
THE PLT WAS PARTICIPATING IN AN OPEN COURSE AIR RACE TO JACKPOT, NV. HE PLANNED TO MAKE AN EN ROUTE STOP AT ARCO, ID TO REFUEL. THE WX FORCAST CALLED FOR MARGINAL CONDITIONS. THE PLT MADE A TELEPHONE CALL TO ARCO & CONFIRMED THAT THE WX (AT THAT TIME) WAS VFR, SO HE PROCEEDED WITH THE FLT. FOR WEIGHT CONSIDERATIONS, HE TOOK OFF WITH ONLY 38 GAL OF FUEL ON BOARD. HOWEVER, AFTER ARRIVING IN THE AREA OF ARCO, A HEAVY RAIN SHOWER PREVENTED HIM FROM LANDING. HE CHOSE TO CONTINUE TO BURLEY, ID, BUT BEFORE REACHING HIS ALTERNATE STOPPING POINT, THE ENG LOST POWER FROM FUEL EXHAUSTION. SUBSEQUENTLY, THE ACFT WAS DAMAGED DURING A LANDING ON ROUGH TERRAIN. TOTAL TIME OF ENG OPERATION WAS APRX 4 HR & 50 MIN. ACCORDING TO THE OWNER'S MANUAL, 38 GAL WOULD HAVE PROVIDED ABOUT 4.9 HRS OF FLT TIME. LESS THAN 1 PINT OF FUEL WAS FOUND IN THE FUEL TANKS.
Verbatim NTSB analysis from the NTSB dataset
Sources
NTSB record SEA84LA001
- Event ID
- 20001214X44964
- Case number
- SEA84LA001
- 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 1983-10-02.
- API snapshot SHA-256: b6171323ad04c57f7421c7a23c604e1d8b601fe13d25229b873dbdc8daa5aa99; retrieved 2026-09-23T21:16:14.881Z.