SEA03FA013 · Cessna 172P
Wings of Wenatchee Cessna 172P · Accident: in flight encounter with weather en route
From Pangborn Memorial Airport (EAT) to an unrecorded destination
Event
- NTSB case
- SEA03FA013
- 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
- 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
- Instrument Meteorological Cond
Cessna 172P
- Aircraft type
- Cessna 172
- 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
- N65564
- Operator
- Wings of Wenatchee
- Onboard fatalities
- Unknown
- Route
- From Pangborn Memorial Airport (EAT), Wenatchee, 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
- 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, attempted
Approximate · Coordinates from the NTSB case API, which marks them as estimated or does not say; no uncertainty radius is established.
NTSB narrative
The 70 hour non-instrument rated private pilot departed Wenatchee, Washington, with his passenger for a short scenic flight in the Cessna 172P. Weather at Wenatchee, located 8 nautical miles north-northeast of the accident site, both before and after the accident was reported as calm winds and 2,000 foot overcast (3,250 foot overcast above mean sea level). The aircraft departed approximately 1115 and, according to both the tachometer and Hobbs meter, flew approximately 20 minutes. The aircraft impacted trees on an approximate 140 degree magnetic heading while in nearly level flight. The aircraft continued 170 feet southeast bound and then impacted the 20 degree up-sloping terrain coming to rest near a logging road approximately 3,500 feet above mean sea level. Witnesses at the scene immediately after the accident reported the weather at the site as characterized by foggy conditions and poor visibility. No evidence of pre-impact mechanical malfunction was found with the aircraft/powerplant. Toxicological evaluation of samples from the pilot revealed the following drugs: Diphenhydramine present in urine, 0.107 (ug/ml, ug/g) Diphenhydramine detected in blood, Doxylamine present in urine, 0.042 (ug/ml, ug/g) Doxylamine detected in blood. Diphenhydramine (commonly known by the trade name Benadryl) is an over-the-counter antihistamine with sedative effects, often used to treat allergy symptoms. Doxylamine is another sedating over-the-counter antihistamine, often used in sleep aids such as Unisom. It is also commonly found in nighttime multi-symptom cold relievers.
Probable cause
The pilot's attempted VFR flight into IMC resulting in the aircraft colliding with trees and up sloping terrain. Contributing factors were clouds, trees, and uphill terrain. The pilot’s performance and judgment were likely impaired by the effects of diphenhydramine and possibly by the effects of doxylamine.
Verbatim NTSB analysis and probable cause from the NTSB dataset
Sources
NTSB record SEA03FA013
- Event ID
- 20021204X05565
- Case number
- SEA03FA013
- 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, coordinates. 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: 0291bc464e5d9c5fdf4c87b1a1059114d08cb4cae6b22add65f0d284ff9008ae; retrieved 2026-09-20T19:37:25.016Z.