SEA02LA128 · Taylorcraft F19
Taylorcraft F19 · Accident: in flight collision with object on approach
From Sandpoint Airport (SZT) to Heron, MT
Event
- NTSB case
- SEA02LA128
- 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
Taylorcraft F19
- Aircraft type
- Taylorcraft F19
- 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
- N374D
- Operator
- Unknown
- Onboard fatalities
- Unknown
- Route
- From Sandpoint Airport (SZT), Sandpoint, IDTo Heron, MT
- 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
- Approach · VFR pattern final
- 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 collision with object
- 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
- Tree(s)
- 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
- Pilot in command › Clearance, not maintained
Approximate · Coordinates from the NTSB case API, which marks them as estimated or does not say; no uncertainty radius is established.
NTSB narrative
The pilot, who was landing at his 1,400 foot private grass airstrip on a clear day with calm winds, made his "normal approach" to runway 34. As soon as he thought he had cleared the trees off the southeast end of the airstrip, he closed the throttle and pushed the nose of the aircraft down in order to maintain the desired airspeed to the end of the runway. But, when he pushed the nose down, the left wing tip collided with a tree that he had not yet cleared, and the aircraft flipped upside down while about 50 feet above the ground and then impacted the terrain. According to the pilot, there was no indication of any problem with the aircraft's flight controls or engine. He further stated that the only reason for the accident was that he failed to make sure he had cleared the trees.
Probable cause
The pilot's failure to maintain vertical clearance from trees. Factors include tall trees just off the approach end of the runway.
Verbatim NTSB analysis and probable cause from the NTSB dataset
Sources
NTSB record SEA02LA128
- Event ID
- 20020726X01222
- Case number
- SEA02LA128
- 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, coordinates. Values present in the bulk record are kept.
- The date is the local date; the NTSB stores the UTC date 2002-07-03.
- API snapshot SHA-256: 8d4142635db53fafa0e1504f523d222ddf60dbf00dc3c075764b62c3054aad1e; retrieved 2026-09-21T19:40:55.847Z.