SEA03FA106 · Downer RC-3
Downer RC-3 · Accident: overrun during takeoff
From 92W · Yelm, WA to Norman Grier Field (S36)
Event
- NTSB case
- SEA03FA106
- 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
- 1 · 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
Downer RC-3
- Aircraft type
- Downer RC-3
- 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
- N6723K
- Operator
- Unknown
- Onboard fatalities
- Unknown
- Route
- From 92W · Yelm, WATo Norman Grier Field (S36), Kent, 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
- Takeoff
- 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
- Overrun
- 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 › Abort, not performed
Approximate · Coordinates as recorded by the NTSB; no uncertainty radius is established.
NTSB narrative
Prior to the flight the pilot-rated passenger and first pilot discussed who would operate the aircraft. The passenger would occupy the left seat and taxi the airplane to the active runway, while the first pilot would occupy the right seat and do the flying. The passenger did not remember if the parking brake was set or released prior to beginning his taxi, but did remember that the aircraft did not pull to the left or right while taxiing. Upon reaching the active runway and getting the airplane lined up, the first pilot took control of the airplane and advanced the throttle. The passenger said he didn't feel like the airplane was accelerating properly, and when he asked the first pilot if the airplane was accelerating properly, the first pilot replied, "Yes." As the airplane continued down the runway on its takeoff roll, and sensing the airplane was still not accelerating, the passenger asked the first pilot if he wanted him to put some flaps on. The first pilot replied, "No," and there were no further communications between the passenger and first pilot. The airplane continued off the end of the runway and through a 66 foot grass overrun before going over an embankment and impacting trees. The aircraft subsequently came to rest inverted at the bottom of a ravine. The fuselage and tail section of the aircraft were oriented up and parallel to the slope of the ravine, while the nose and left wing of the aircraft were partially submerged in the adjacent canal which borders the edge of the ravine. Witnesses to the accident thought the pilot was doing a high speed taxi, that the airplane reached a maximum speed of approximately 50 miles per hour, and that there was no attempt to abort the takeoff roll. Several witnesses reported that the engine didn't sound right, was making noises, and was not running smoothly. A post accident examination of the airframe, engine, and propeller did not reveal any anomalies which would have precluded normal operation of the aircraft.
Probable cause
The failure of the pilot to abort the takeoff roll. Factors contributing to the accident included the failure of the aircraft to accelerate for undetermined reasons and the trees.
Verbatim NTSB analysis and probable cause from the NTSB dataset
Sources
NTSB record SEA03FA106
- Event ID
- 20030620X00925
- Case number
- SEA03FA106
- 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. Values present in the bulk record are kept.
- The date is the local date; the NTSB stores the UTC date 2003-06-17.
- API snapshot SHA-256: 77a0de96757588ef7f3836f05016e1d64cca87a8b45bde0fe2e36d63afd78774; retrieved 2026-09-20T19:09:01.791Z.