SEA07LA249 · Cessna 177
Cessna 177 · Accident: in flight collision with object while maneuvering
From Joslin Field Magic Valley Regional Airport (KTWF) to Renton Municipal Airport (KRNT)
Event
- NTSB case
- SEA07LA249
- 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
- Instrument Meteorological Cond
Cessna 177
- Aircraft type
- Cessna 177
- 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
- N5180J
- Operator
- Unknown
- Onboard fatalities
- Unknown
- Route
- From Joslin Field Magic Valley Regional Airport (KTWF), Twin Falls, IDTo Renton Municipal Airport (KRNT), Renton, 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
- 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, who was on a VFR flight plan, was flying a nearly direct route from his point of departure to his planned destination. Near the end of his planned flight, he approached a mountain range that stood between him and his destination. Just before reaching the mountainous terrain, the pilot cancelled his VFR flight following, and began to descend. Once he entered the mountains, he encountered the forecasted clouds and low ceilings that kept him from continuing on his planned direct course. He continued to descend, and began maneuvering through the mountainous terrain in the general direction of his destination. After making three major course reversals, the pilot began following a road that would have taken him back to the last major town he had past while flying the direct part of his course. While following that road, he made another apparent course alteration, which placed the aircraft in a narrow valley with up-slopping terrain. As he continued up that valley, he reached a forested ridge that he did not clear, resulting in the aircraft colliding with a number of trees.
Probable cause
The pilot's failure to maintain clearance from the trees while maneuvering in mountainous terrain. Factors include the mountainous terrain, low ceilings, and trees in the area where the pilot was maneuvering.
Verbatim NTSB analysis and probable cause from the NTSB dataset
Sources
NTSB record SEA07LA249
- Event ID
- 20070924X01435
- Case number
- SEA07LA249
- 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: eace720425e8e63bd778129868c586d26efb5f2176bd00508714a382511bd9ee; retrieved 2026-09-20T16:36:38.702Z.