SEA03LA127 · Lockheed 402-2
Lockheed 402-2 · Accident: in flight collision with object on approach
From Orofino Municipal Airport (S68) to Headquarters, ID
Event
- NTSB case
- SEA03LA127
- 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
Lockheed 402-2
- Aircraft type
- Lockheed 402
- 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
- N3380G
- Operator
- Unknown
- Onboard fatalities
- Unknown
- Route
- From Orofino Municipal Airport (S68), Orofino, IDTo Headquarters, ID
- 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 › Fuel consumption calculations, improper
- Pilot in command › Preflight planning/preparation, improper
Approximate · Coordinates from the NTSB case API, which marks them as estimated or does not say; no uncertainty radius is established.
NTSB narrative
With no refueler at departure airport, the pilot felt he had enough fuel to make it to his destination. En route he realized he would not have enough fuel to reach his destination and chose to return to the departure airport. Encountering a 25 knot headwind and realizing he would not have enough fuel to reach his destination, the pilot elected to make a precautionary landing at an old logging staging area/road. While attempting to land on the unused emergency strip, the aircraft encountered a downdraft and struck trees at the end of the runway. Both wings, the rudder, elevator, and both horizontal and vertical stabilizers sustained substantial damage.
Probable cause
The pilot's improper preflight planning and improper fuel consumption calculations. Factors contributing to the accident included the unfavorable wind condition, the downdraft, and the trees.
Verbatim NTSB analysis and probable cause from the NTSB dataset
Sources
NTSB record SEA03LA127
- Event ID
- 20030714X01098
- Case number
- SEA03LA127
- 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: 966ac2e8d8d5ab63b6c8c74fe2f886f143604521ca6a3fdb8f84c5dec719ec34; retrieved 2026-09-21T19:25:49.869Z.