WPR13LA283 · Extra 300/LT
Extra 300/LT · Accident: low altitude operation/event while maneuvering
From Ontario, OR to Ontario, OR
Event
- NTSB case
- WPR13LA283
- 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
- Visual Meteorological Cond
Extra 300/LT
- Aircraft type
- Extra 300
- 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
- N169TM
- Operator
- Edward Claugus
- Onboard fatalities
- Unknown
- Route
- From Ontario, ORTo Ontario, OR
- Aircraft age
- About 2 years (built 2011)
- 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 · low-altitude flying
- 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
- Low altitude operation/event
- 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
- Wire
- 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
- Aircraft › Aircraft oper/perf/capability
- Environmental issues › Physical environment
- Personnel issues › Action/decision
- Personnel issues › Psychological
Approximate · Coordinates from the NTSB case API, not marked as estimated; no uncertainty radius is established.
NTSB narrative
Witnesses reported that they observed the airplane flying at a low level through a river canyon—one witness stated it was following the canyon's contours—and then colliding with a marked power line strung across the river. The airplane subsequently impacted the ground. Scratch marks from the wire were observed on the left wing. First responders reported that the pilot was in the rear seat, which might have hampered his forward visibility and led to his failure to see the power lines.
The toxicological report identified the presence of ramipril and atorvastatin in the pilot's urine; however, neither of these medications are impairing. The toxicology testing also detected a very low level of morphine in the pilot's urine, which indicates that he had used a medication containing an opioid within a few days of the accident. However, because it was no longer detectable in the blood, it is not likely that the pilot was impaired by the medication at the time of the accident.
Probable cause
The pilot's improper decision to conduct low-level maneuvering in a river canyon with power lines, which resulted in his failure to maintain clearance from the power lines.
Verbatim NTSB analysis and probable cause from the NTSB dataset
Sources
NTSB record WPR13LA283
- Event ID
- 20130624X92540
- Case number
- WPR13LA283
- 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: 21c826408ca2aaaeeba12038566c9576fc994cb34ee98d2b6ad852696c5e40d5; retrieved 2026-09-14T15:59:37.534Z.