SEA05LA162 · Harmon/Lance RV-4
Harmon/Lance RV-4 · Accident: in flight collision with object on approach
From Scappoose Industrial Airpark (SPB) to Cavanaugh Bay Airport (66S)
Narrative check · The NTSB narrative appears to contradict this record's damage. Values are shown as recorded, not corrected; compare with the narrative.
Event
- NTSB case
- SEA05LA162
- 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
Harmon/Lance RV-4
- Aircraft type
- Harmon/lance RV-4
- 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
- N683RV
- Operator
- Unknown
- Onboard fatalities
- Unknown
- Route
- From Scappoose Industrial Airpark (SPB), Scappoose, ORTo Cavanaugh Bay Airport (66S), Coolin, 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
- Approach · VFR pattern turn to base
- 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
- Substantial Possible conflict
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
Witnesses in the area reported seeing the aircraft first fly over the bay, "...very low over the water, at times only 50 to 100 feet above the lake." This witness stated that the plane "buzzed" over the houses on the east side of Coolin Bay. The aircraft made two passes over the houses, then flew north towards Rocky Point and Cavanaugh Bay at a "very low altitude." Another witness reported that when he first saw the aircraft he thought that it had just taken off as the aircraft was "just above the trees when it suddenly veered hard to the right and disappeared into the trees." Smoke was seen almost immediately after he lost sight of the aircraft. Documentation of the accident site indicated that the aircraft collided with several trees before colliding with the terrain. Fire destroyed a majority of the aircraft and flight control system.
Probable cause
The pilot's failure to maintain clearance from trees while maneuvering to base leg for landing. Trees and inadequate in-flight planning were factors.
Verbatim NTSB analysis and probable cause from the NTSB dataset
Sources
NTSB record SEA05LA162
- Event ID
- 20050809X01187
- Case number
- SEA05LA162
- 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: 5a9c75df81e16cfbeb83710e2d88970626cc0ef6c5c5f26fdfba3a3b353eb10e; retrieved 2026-09-20T17:56:57.521Z.