SEA05LA133 · Aero Vodochody Aero. Works L-39C
Aero Vodochody Aero. Works L-39C · Accident: airframe, component or system failure en route
From King County International Airport - Boeing Field (KBFI) to Lewiston Nez Perce County Airport (KLWS)
Event
- NTSB case
- SEA05LA133
- 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
- Instrument Meteorological Cond
Aero Vodochody Aero. Works L-39C
- Aircraft type
- Aero Vodochody Aero Works L-39
- 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
- N39TJ
- Operator
- Unknown
- Onboard fatalities
- Unknown
- Route
- From King County International Airport - Boeing Field (KBFI), Seattle, WATo Lewiston Nez Perce County Airport (KLWS), Lewiston, 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
- 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
- Airframe, component or system failure
- 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
- Flight control system › Malfunction
Approximate · Coordinates from the NTSB case API, which marks them as estimated or does not say; no uncertainty radius is established.
NTSB narrative
During the en route climb to cruise, the pilot was cleared to 17,000 feet by the controller. About one minute later, the pilot was given a clearance to proceed direct to his ultimate destination, and at that time he gave no indication of having encountered any problem. Then about five seconds after receiving the clearance, the pilot advised Center that he had a flight control problem. About ten seconds after that, he stated that he had an in-flight emergency, and about fifteen seconds after declaring the emergency, the pilot transmitted three times in a rapid excited voice that he was "out of control." The controller was not able to make any further radio contact with the aircraft, which soon thereafter descended into the terrain at a high rate of speed. The aircraft wreckage was not found for over eight months, and when located was determined to be in over 1,000 pieces over a distance of approximately one-half mile. Due to the extent of the disintegration of the aircraft, no determination could be made as to the exact flight control malfunction that had occurred.
Probable cause
The loss of aircraft control during climb to cruise due to an undetermined flight control malfunction.
Verbatim NTSB analysis and probable cause from the NTSB dataset
Sources
NTSB record SEA05LA133
- Event ID
- 20050801X01133
- Case number
- SEA05LA133
- 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: 16085063c43e3861760a060a618f01ea76bb2b4ef971597645c758a0e1f2b038; retrieved 2026-09-20T18:18:06.916Z.