SEA07LA009 · Helio H-295
Helio H-295 · Accident: loss of engine power during initial climb
From Lake Isabel, WA to First Air Field (W16)
Event
- NTSB case
- SEA07LA009
- 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
Helio H-295
- Aircraft type
- Helio H-295
- 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
- N6471V
- Operator
- Unknown
- Onboard fatalities
- Unknown
- Route
- From Lake Isabel, WATo First Air Field (W16), Monroe, WA
- 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
- Initial climb
- 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
- Stall/mush
- DamageDestroyed: beyond practical repair. Substantial: damage that affects the structure, performance or handling and normally needs major repair. Minor: less than that. Glossary
- Substantial
Cause areas
- Pilot in command › Airspeed, 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
According to the pilot, he landed the floatplane on the lake and back taxied for takeoff. The takeoff was normal until the airplane reached an altitude of 50 to 75 feet at which point he noticed that the engine was producing only "2/3rds power with full throttle." The pilot was concerned about not being able to clear trees at the end of the lake if he continued straight ahead, so he elected to execute a 180 degree turn and land back on the lake. As the steep left turn was completed, the airplane lost lift, and the landing was hard. The airplane began to rapidly fill with water, and the pilot and passenger exited through the rear cabin door. As the pilot and passenger were swimming to shore, the airplane completely submerged. The airplane was not recovered from the lake, which precluded determination for the reason of the partial loss of engine power.
Probable cause
The pilot's failure to maintain airspeed while maneuvering for a precautionary landing following a partial loss of engine power, which resulted in an inadvertent stall/mush and subsequent hard landing. A contributing factor was the partial loss of engine power for an undetermined reason.
Verbatim NTSB analysis and probable cause from the NTSB dataset
Sources
NTSB record SEA07LA009
- Event ID
- 20061031X01586
- Case number
- SEA07LA009
- 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: 30d2c906d94e5cfcdc1d00826a34033f08904387cfa9fafacf5dad8ec859ea2e; retrieved 2026-09-21T08:53:26.286Z.