SEA04LA168 · Cessna 150L
Cessna 150L · Accident: in flight collision with terrain/water while maneuvering
From Angela, MT to an unrecorded destination
Event
- NTSB case
- SEA04LA168
- 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
Cessna 150L
- Aircraft type
- Cessna 150
- 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
- N17062
- Operator
- Unknown
- Onboard fatalities
- Unknown
- Route
- From Angela, MTTo 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
- 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 terrain/water
- 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
A witness observed the airplane appear over a rise in the terrain from the west flying in an easterly direction. The airplane circled twice at less than 1,000 feet above the ground before heading west in a slight descent and impacting the ground at a high rate of speed. The pilot had a history of alcohol abuse beginning at the age of 16, as well as a history of driving intoxicated while under the influence of alcohol. He received inpatient treatment for "alcohol dependence" in 1993 and was noted to be "high risk for relapse" in documentation provided to the FAA. The pilot's first application for a 3rd Class Medical Certificate and Student Pilot Certificate in 1995 was denied. The pilot subsequently obtained a valid medical certificate in 1997, but was cautioned by the FAA that any further alcohol related offenses, or evidence of alcohol abuse could require re-evaluation of his medical certification. Additional documentation submitted to the FAA from 1995 through 1999 indicated that the pilot was completely abstinent from alcohol following impatient treatment in 1993. However, information submitted to the FAA in 2000 noted that the pilot was drinking 'about a six pack of beer per week' and had 'elevated liver enzymes.' No additional evaluation was requested by the FAA following the receipt of that information. Toxicological specimens from the pilot revealed 263 mg/dL (0.263%) ethanol in blood, 275 mg/dL (0.275%) in urine, 235 mg/dL (0.235%) in vitreous, and 190 mg/dL (0.190%) in brain. Examination of the airframe and engine, and their logbooks, did not reveal any pre-existing anomalies that would have prevented normal operations.
Probable cause
The failure of the pilot to maintain clearance while maneuvering. A factor contributing to the accident was the physical impairment of the pilot due to an elevated blood alcohol level.
Verbatim NTSB analysis and probable cause from the NTSB dataset
Sources
NTSB record SEA04LA168
- Event ID
- 20040914X01429
- Case number
- SEA04LA168
- 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, coordinates. Values present in the bulk record are kept.
- The date is the local date; the NTSB stores the UTC date 2004-08-19.
- API snapshot SHA-256: 3ca5a0e10ea16a506126db5d77427c38786c56b90e25783334e92cbc88f49790; retrieved 2026-09-20T18:22:15.954Z.