SEA08CA199 · Cessna 177B
Cessna 177B · Accident: collision with terrain/object (non-CFIT) while maneuvering
From Truckee Tahoe Airport (KTRK) to Roseburg Regional Airport (KRBG)
Event
- NTSB case
- SEA08CA199
- 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
Cessna 177B
- 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
- N30692
- Operator
- Unknown
- Onboard fatalities
- Unknown
- Route
- From Truckee Tahoe Airport (KTRK), Truckee, CATo Roseburg Regional Airport (KRBG), Roseburg, OR
- 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
- Defining eventThe 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
- Collision with terrain/object (non-CFIT)
- 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
- Personnel issues › Action/decision
Approximate · Coordinates from the NTSB case API, not marked as estimated; no uncertainty radius is established.
NTSB narrative
The pilot took off from the mountain airport with a density altitude of about 8,000 feet and winds gusting to 14 knots. According to calculations by a Federal Aviation Administration inspector, the airplane was loaded to within about 50 pounds of its maximum gross weight. After lifting off, the airplane climbed to about 200 feet above ground level, and then started to sink as it encountered downdrafts over the mountainous terrain. The pilot turned back toward the airport, and he elected to maintain an airspeed above stall speed. During the turn the airplane continued to descend. Prior to reaching the airport, the airplane's wheels momentarily touched the terrain, but the airplane became airborne again. Almost immediately thereafter, the airplane's left wing contacted the ground. The airplane then cartwheeled into the terrain. There was no evidence of any engine or flight control anomaly. According to the pilot, the way to prevent such an accident from reoccurring is, "To not fly in the mountains when the gross weight is close to the maximum."
Probable cause
The pilot's improper decision to take off in a heavily loaded airplane under the ambient conditions that existed at the time. Contributing to the accident was the mountainous/hilly terrain, a high density altitude, gusty winds and downdrafts.
Verbatim NTSB analysis and probable cause from the NTSB dataset
Sources
NTSB record SEA08CA199
- Event ID
- 20081017X42817
- Case number
- SEA08CA199
- Dataset
- full-current
- Source SHA-256
- 5cf380f0061817c0331a6b2d8cc7e0ee3a79bea469a1001dc5c10e56f35f5ab3
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: fa404036d50caccf478bdfcbda335b4fef5862f10a34e381dc30e141c09762f1; retrieved 2026-09-15T10:28:37.218Z.