WPR24LA013 · Cessna 340A
Western Airlines LC Cessna 340A · Accident: ground collision while taxiing
From an unrecorded airport to Felts Field (SFF)
Event
- NTSB case
- WPR24LA013
- 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
- Event fatalities
- Unknown
- 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 340A
- Aircraft type
- Cessna 340
- 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
- N682JS
- Operator
- Western Airlines LC
- Onboard fatalities
- Unknown
- Route
- From not recordedTo Felts Field (SFF), Spokane, WA
- Aircraft age
- About 42 years (built 1981)
- 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
- Taxi · to runway
- 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
- Ground collision
- 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 › Psychological
Approximate · Coordinates as recorded by the NTSB; no uncertainty radius is established.
NTSB narrative
While taxiing for departure in night visual meteorological conditions, the airplane drifted left of the taxiway centerline and the left wingtip impacted a fence, resulting in substantial damage and a postimpact fire when the left wingtip fuel tank was breached. Although the pilot reported that the right brake failed while attempting to stop, review of surveillance video footage indicated that the airplane was traveling at a relatively constant speed with no noticeable change in speed or direction before impact with the fence. Examination of the airplane’s brake system, nose wheel steering system, wheels, and tires revealed no evidence of any failures or malfunctions that would have precluded normal operation. Based on the available information, it is likely that the pilot failed to maintain directional control while taxiing, which resulted in impact with the fence.
Probable cause
The pilot’s failure to maintain directional control while taxiing, which resulted in impact with a fence.
Verbatim NTSB analysis and probable cause from the NTSB dataset
Sources
NTSB record WPR24LA013
- Event ID
- 20231012193236
- Case number
- WPR24LA013
- 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, cause areas. 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: e5dfdbeb17124d97cf94556f6365115c571a448e3aa24bc8eb9b381c1efc670e; retrieved 2026-09-16T18:13:01.351Z.