SEA83FYM02 · Enstrom 280C
Enstrom 280C · Accident: in flight encounter with weather en route
From Ridgefield, WA to Hillsboro, OR
Event
- NTSB case
- SEA83FYM02
- 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
- 2 · 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
Enstrom 280C
- Aircraft type
- Enstrom 280
- Category
- Helicopter
- 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
- N5686Z
- Operator
- Paul David Zimmerly
- Onboard fatalities
- Unknown
- Route
- From Ridgefield, WATo Hillsboro, OR
- 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
- Visual flight rules (VFR) flight into instrument meteorological conditions (IMC); 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
- Destroyed
Cause areas
- Pilot in command › VFR flight into imc, continued
Approximate · Coordinates as recorded by the NTSB; no uncertainty radius is established.
NTSB narrative
AT ABOUT 0530 PST, THE PILOT DEPARTED FROM HIS HOME AT RIDGE FIELD, WA ON A FLIGHT TO HILLSBORO, OR. ACCORDING TO THE PILOT'S INSTRUCTOR, THE NORMAL ROUTE USED FOR THIS TRIP WOULD BEEN TO PROCEED ON A SOUTHERLY HEADING TO CORNELIUS PASS, GO THROUGH THE PASS, THEN CONTINUE TO HILLSBORO. THE HELICOPTERCRASHED ABOUT 2.5 MI NORTHWEST OF CORNELIUS PASS. THE 0548 PST HILLSBORO WX WAS 1400 PTLY OBSCD, 3600 OVC, VIS 7 MI, TEMP 45, DEW PT 43, WIND 170 DEG AT 10 GS'TG 30 KTS. THE ELEVATION AT HILLSBORO WAS 204 FT, THE CRASH SITE WAS AT ABOUT 900 FT. THE PILOT'S INSTRUCTOR WAS SEARCHING THE AREA AT 0200. HE STATED THE CRASH SITE WAS OBSCURED BY CLOUDS, THERE WAS STRONG TURBULENCE, THE WIND WAS GUSTING FROM THE SOUTH AT 30 TO 40 KTS, AND THERE WAS HEAVY RAIN. AN EXAMINATION OF THE SITE REVEALED THE HELICOPTER HAD COLLIDED WITH TREES ON A STEEP SLOPE WHILE IN A TURN. NO PREIMPACT/ MECHANICAL MALFUNCTION OR FAILURES WERE FOUND THAT WOULD HAVE ATTRIBUTED TO THE ACCIDENT.
Verbatim NTSB analysis from the NTSB dataset
Sources
NTSB record SEA83FYM02
- Event ID
- 20020917X05140
- Case number
- SEA83FYM02
- 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: 136d4269c5e1a9949469ce5ad3b5476241e89f8660831a1452743a95a052faf4; retrieved 2026-09-21T07:22:48.981Z.