SEA03LA190 · Cessna 182
Cessna 182 · Accident: in flight collision with object while maneuvering
From Indian Creek US Forest Service Airport (S81) to Upper Loon Creek US Forest Service Airport (U72)
Event
- NTSB case
- SEA03LA190
- 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
- Visual Meteorological Cond
Cessna 182
- Aircraft type
- Cessna 182
- 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
- N5547B
- Operator
- Unknown
- Onboard fatalities
- Unknown
- Route
- From Indian Creek US Forest Service Airport (S81), Indian Creek, IDTo Upper Loon Creek US Forest Service Airport (U72), Upper Loon Cr, 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
- 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
The pilot was en route to a remote airstrip located in mountainous terrain. A witness to the accident stated that the pilot of the accident airplane turned south of course "up the first drainage" and began a descent into the canyon. The witness communicated to the accident pilot that he was in the wrong canyon, stating over the radio "get out of there now". Shortly after the radio call, the witness observed the accident pilot initiate a turn to the left. Approximately 170 degrees into the turn, the airplane impacted a large tree near the canyon's edge. After colliding with the tree, the airplane caught fire and subsequently impacted terrain in a nose low attitude. Search and rescue personnel located the wreckage in a heavily wooded drainage valley approximately seven miles northwest of the intended destination. The narrow valley is bordered by steep rising terrain. Post-accident inspection and teardown of the airplane's engine revealed no evidence of a pre impact mechanical malfunction or failure.
Probable cause
The pilot's failure to maintain clearance from trees while maneuvering. Factors include mountainous terrain and trees.
Verbatim NTSB analysis and probable cause from the NTSB dataset
Sources
NTSB record SEA03LA190
- Event ID
- 20030922X01570
- Case number
- SEA03LA190
- 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: e730877744c095693927afda219bb0f56a5963753f897f9f4b7e94d53fd206ca; retrieved 2026-09-20T18:57:39.686Z.