SEA03LA186 · Schmidt Zodiac 601 XL
Schmidt Zodiac 601 XL · Accident: loss of engine power en route
From Sumner, WA to an unrecorded destination
Event
- NTSB case
- SEA03LA186
- 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
Schmidt Zodiac 601 XL
- Aircraft type
- Schmidt ZODIAC 601
- 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
- N819GS
- Operator
- Unknown
- Onboard fatalities
- Unknown
- Route
- From Sumner, 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 · climb to 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
- Loss of engine power
- 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
- Reason for occurrence undetermined
Approximate · Coordinates from the NTSB case API, which marks them as estimated or does not say; no uncertainty radius is established.
NTSB narrative
In a written statement the pilot reported that the water takeoff was normal, however, 400 to 500 feet into the climb, the engine quit. The pilot reported that a straight ahead landing was not possible due to boats on the water, and elected to land near a residential street on Snag Island. In a supplemental written statement, the pilot reported that following the engine failure he turned the airplane to the left, approximately 180 degrees, in an effort to reach a suitable area for landing. The statement continues, adding that after completing the turn, the pilot was still unable to reach a suitable landing area and elected to "...stall into the trees." A witness to the accident reported, in part, that the pilot was demonstrating the airplane's takeoff performance off water. The witness stated he followed the airplane, on a jet ski, during its takeoff glide in an effort to mark the actual point of takeoff. A second witness, who was also on a jet ski, reported that shortly after becoming airborne, approximately 100 feet above ground level (AGL), the airplane "...began a very steep right turn." The witness stated that after entering the turn, the airplane pitched (nose down) and impacted terrain. Disassembly and examination of the cylinder assemblies and associated components revealed no evidence of a pre impact mechanical failure. Further examination of the crankcase and internal crankcase components revealed no evidence of oil starvation or internal component failure.
Probable cause
Loss of engine power during the initial climb. Factors include the in-flight collision with trees during the uncontrolled descent.
Verbatim NTSB analysis and probable cause from the NTSB dataset
Sources
NTSB record SEA03LA186
- Event ID
- 20030910X01513
- Case number
- SEA03LA186
- 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: 1754c7691d0cf0d92b72f1f336a6ec543ea81ebe259f49a21dec2272d601650d; retrieved 2026-09-21T09:23:28.834Z.