Lao Air Cessna 208 B accident
Cessna 208 B · Accident: collision with terrain/object (non-CFIT) during landing
From Vientiane, Laos to Sam Neua Airport (VLSN)
Event
- NTSB case
- WPR09WA292
- 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
- Unknown · led by another country; figures from NTSB notifications
- 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
- Charter & commuter
- WeatherVisual meteorological conditions (VMC): good enough to fly by looking outside. Instrument conditions (IMC): cloud or low visibility, flying by instruments. Glossary
- Not recorded
Cessna 208 B
- Aircraft type
- Cessna 208
- 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
- RDPL-34144
- Operator
- Lao Air
- Onboard fatalities
- Unknown
- Route
- From Vientiane, LaosTo Sam Neua Airport (VLSN), Samneua, Laos
- 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
- Non-U.S., Commercial
- 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
- Landing
- 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
No findings designated as a cause are recorded in the NTSB data yet.
Approximate · Estimated position: the centre of Vientiane, the place the record names. Not the accident site.
NTSB narrative
On April 11, 2009, about 1035 coordinated universal time (UTC), a Cessna 208B, Laos registration RDPL-34144, owned by Helicopters of New Zealand, operated by Lao Air, was substantially damaged during a forced landing following a loss of engine power near Vientiane, Laos. The two pilots and 11 passengers were not injured.
Laos investigators reported that during takeoff initial climb the flight crew heard a loud bang and hissing noise from the engine followed by a loss of engine power. The pilot in command observed the engine had shut itself down and the propeller was in the feathered position immediately after the loss of power. The pilot altered course back towards the airport, and was unsuccessful at restarting the engine. Unable to make it back to the airport, the pilot prepared for an off field landing. During landing the airplane bounced twice before coming to rest.
The investigation is under the jurisdiction of the Government of Laos. This report is for information purposes only and contains only information released by the Government of Laos. Further information pertaining to this accident may be obtained from:
Ministry of Public Works and Transport Department of Civil Aviation Wattay International Airport, P.O. Box 119 Vientiane Lao PDR Telephone/Fax: 512163
Verbatim NTSB factual narrative from the NTSB dataset
Sources
NTSB record WPR09WA292
- Event ID
- 20090618X13510
- Case number
- WPR09WA292
- 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.
- No bulk values were replaced by the NTSB case API.
- The date is the local date, which is the same as the UTC date the NTSB stores.
- API snapshot SHA-256: c93a515950f1520567f86ee2028c63e978a37ddb8b02fcc4523144c41add5605; retrieved 2026-09-15T11:28:56.185Z.