SEA03FA143 · Piper PA-34-200T
Piper PA-34-200T · Accident: in flight collision with object while maneuvering
From Campo Mourão Airport (CBW) to Vancouver International Airport (YVR)
Event
- NTSB case
- SEA03FA143
- 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
Piper PA-34-200T
- Aircraft type
- Piper PA-34
- 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
- C-GBEN
- Operator
- Unknown
- Onboard fatalities
- Unknown
- Route
- From Campo Mourão Airport (CBW), SpringbankTo Vancouver International Airport (YVR), Vancouver
- 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
- Non-U.S., Non-Commercial
- 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
- Maneuvering
- 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
- Destroyed
Cause areas
- Pilot in command › Clearance, not maintained
Approximate · Coordinates from the NTSB case API, which marks them as estimated or does not say; no uncertainty radius is established.
NTSB narrative
Prior to his departure the pilot informed maintenance personnel that he would be flying from Calgary, Canada to Vancouver, Canada. There was no radar data availble on the accident aircraft after taking off, nor while on the en route portion of the flight. At approximately 0755, local law enforcement personnel reported receiving a telephone call from an individual who reported seeing a twin engine airplane flying low over the area close to the Snake River. At approximately 0845, a second witness reported seeing a twin-engine airplane on the east side of the Salmon River at an altitude estimated to be between 200 and 500 feet above the ground, heading north-northwest paralleling the river. The witness stated that he didn't detect anything "irregular" about the engine, and that the airplane disappeared out of sight as it continued in a north-northwest direction. At 0930 the aircraft wreckage was located in a remote forested area. The beginning of the wreckage path was evidenced by multiple severed trees and extended over an area of approximately 555 feet on a southerly heading. Both wings were separated from the fuselage, and all fuel tanks were breached. The vertical stabilizer and rudder remained attached to the empennage, while the stabilator and elevator were separated. There was no post-impact fire. Post-accident toxicology testing revealed a carboxyhemoglobin (carbon monoxide) level of 17% which would be expected to result in measurable impairment of cognitive function. Examination of the airframe, engine and aircraft logbooks did not reveal any pre-existing anomalies which would have prevented normal operations.
Probable cause
The failure of the pilot to maintain clearance with terrain while maneuvering. Factors contributing to the accident included the impairment of the pilot due to carbon monoxide exposure and the trees.
Verbatim NTSB analysis and probable cause from the NTSB dataset
Sources
NTSB record SEA03FA143
- Event ID
- 20030729X01215
- Case number
- SEA03FA143
- 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: 7d6dd8a130e84ef5350a9cbc3aaf10632121c492a321d007b8632f0fdeee80d5; retrieved 2026-09-20T19:02:24.588Z.