SEA02LA013 · Piper PA-18-150
Piper PA-18-150 · Accident: loss of engine power during initial climb
From Brewster, WA to an unrecorded destination
Event
- NTSB case
- SEA02LA013
- 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
- Unknown
- 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
Piper PA-18-150
- Aircraft type
- Piper PA-18
- 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
- N5762A
- Operator
- David C. Smith · private individual
- Onboard fatalities
- Unknown
- Route
- From Brewster, 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
- Initial climb
- 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
- Loss of engine power
- 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
- Ignition system, magneto › Switched off
Approximate · Coordinates as recorded by the NTSB; no uncertainty radius is established.
NTSB narrative
The pilot reported that this was the first flight after the aircraft had been completely restored. The start, taxi and takeoff were normal. During the climb, at about 150 feet AGL, the engine suddenly lost power. The pilot was unable to return to the airport, therefore he chose to land on a Highway that parallels the airport. The road was initially clear of traffic until a truck came over a rise. The pilot maneuvered the aircraft to the side of the road and just before touch down, the left wing struck a tree which spun the aircraft to the left. The main landing gear collapsed and the right wing contacted the surface. After the accident, the pilot immediately exited the aircraft, then returned to secure the cockpit when it was safe. The pilot found that the magneto switches, which are unguarded toggle switches located on the lower left side of the wall, were off. The pilot reported that he did not recall turning off the switches prior to exiting the aircraft. After the aircraft was moved back to the airport, the engine was started and run for several minutes with no evidence of a mechanical failure or malfunction noted.
Probable cause
The magneto was inadvertently switched off by the pilot during the climb. A tree was a factor.
Verbatim NTSB analysis and probable cause from the NTSB dataset
Sources
NTSB record SEA02LA013
- Event ID
- 20011119X02258
- Case number
- SEA02LA013
- 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: a575cb7329e16729b4de0db8d63564fa2a72e89d133e7f3b9c8b7923a7cc4ca2; retrieved 2026-09-22T11:23:34.285Z.