SEA83LA007 · Cessna 340
D&D Equip WHSLRS Cessna 340 · Accident: loss of engine power during initial climb
From BVU · Bellevue, WA to King County International Airport - Boeing Field (BFI)
Event
- NTSB case
- SEA83LA007
- 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
Cessna 340
- Aircraft type
- Cessna 340
- 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
- N6GD
- Operator
- D&D Equip WHSLRS
- Onboard fatalities
- Unknown
- Route
- From BVU · Bellevue, WATo King County International Airport - Boeing Field (BFI), Seattle, WA
- 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
- Reason for occurrence undetermined
Approximate · Coordinates as recorded by the NTSB; no uncertainty radius is established.
NTSB narrative
ACCORDING TO THE PILOT, THE RIGHT ENGINE LOST POWER AT OR SHORTLY AFTER ROTATION FOR TAKEOFF. REPORTEDLY, THERE WAS INSUFFICIENT ROOM TO STOP ON THE RUNWAY WITH A HOUSE NEAR THE END. HE OPTED TO CONTINUE THE TAKEOFF AND FLY TO A SAFE LANDING AREA. HE STATED THAT HE FEATHERED THE RIGHT PROPELLER AND STARTED THE GEAR UP, BUT WAS UNABLE TO EITHER CLIMB OR MAINTAIN HIS AIRSPEED. THE SPEED DETERIORATED TO VMC OR BELOW AND REQUIRED A DESCENT TO JUST ABOVE THE WATER LEVEL OF A LAKE. DURING THIS TIME THE LEFT ENGINE POWER WAS REDUCED TO PREVENT A ROLL TO THE RIGHT. THE PLANE CONTINUED ACROSS THE LAKE FOR ABOUT 1 MILE. WITH THE FAR SHORE AND HIGHER TERRAIN APPROACHING, THE PILOT DITCHED THE PLANE, AND ABOUT 5 MINUTES LATER, IT SANK IN ABOUT 85 FT OF WATER. THE PLANE WAS RECOVER AND THE RIGHT ENGINE WAS STARTED AND AFTER IT WAS CLEANED AND A NEW STARTER VIBRATOR WAS INSTALLED. THE ENGINE WAS OPERATED TO THE RATED RPM.NO PREIMPACT MALFUNCTION WAS VERIFIED DURING THE INVESTIGATION.
Verbatim NTSB analysis from the NTSB dataset
Sources
NTSB record SEA83LA007
- Event ID
- 20020917X05150
- Case number
- SEA83LA007
- 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: 0bcf623c26c1493564f919181c74795cf6fcc2c08756416793f941b9767c765b; retrieved 2026-09-24T00:27:05.086Z.