WPR24FA298 · Boeing A75L3
Boeing A75L3 · Accident: aerodynamic stall/spin while maneuvering
From Ed Carlson Memorial Field South Lewis County Airport (KTDO) to Ken Jernstedt Airfield (4S2)
Event
- NTSB case
- WPR24FA298
- 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
Boeing A75L3
- Aircraft type
- Boeing A75
- 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
- N53466
- Operator
- Unknown
- Onboard fatalities
- Unknown
- Route
- From Ed Carlson Memorial Field South Lewis County Airport (KTDO), Toledo, WATo Ken Jernstedt Airfield (4S2), Hood River, OR
- Aircraft age
- About 83 years (built 1941)
- 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
- Aerodynamic stall/spin
- 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 › Conditions/weather/phenomena
- Environmental issues › Physical environment
- Personnel issues › Psychological
Approximate · Coordinates from the NTSB case API, which marks them as estimated or does not say; no uncertainty radius is established.
NTSB narrative
The accident airplane was one of three airplanes traveling together on a cross-country flight. The pilots of the accident airplane and one of the other two airplanes chose to divert from the group’s typical route of flight to fly an alternate route through rising, mountainous terrain. As the two airplanes approached an area of higher terrain and a ridgeline that required a climb, the pilot of the second airplane flying the alternate route initiated a circling climb to gain sufficient altitude needed to cross the approaching ridgeline. He then continued on toward the intended destination, unaware that the accident airplane was not behind his airplane. When approaching the same ridgeline, the pilot of the accident airplane maintained an altitude that was lower than the elevation of the ridgeline and did not initiate a climb. The airplane maintained an altitude of about 2,900 ft mean sea level (msl) until it entered a left turn, followed by a rapid descent above the accident location. The airplane’s ground speed had slowed to 40 kts at the onset of the rapid descent and the left turn began about .63 statute miles from terrain that rose to 3,550 ft msl, which was the lowest available terrain ahead of the airplane’s position. The pilot likely initiated a left turn away from rising terrain and exceeded the airplane’s critical angle of attack. The investigation was unable to determine why the pilot did not initiate a climb earlier in the flight. The pilot of the second airplane flying the alternate route reported that “it wasn’t too smooth out,” which was consistent with terrain-induced wind and/or turbulence. He reported that at the initiation of his climb he added engine power, saw his ground speed decrease and then added additional engine power. He subsequently chose to circle climb to clear the ridgeline. The calculated density altitude near the accident site was 4,626 ft. Postaccident examination of the engine and airframe revealed no evidence of preaccident malfunction or failure.
Probable cause
The pilot’s exceedance of the airplane’s critical angle of attack while maneuvering at a low altitude in mountainous terrain in moderately high density altitude conditions, resulting in an aerodynamic stall and subsequent impact with terrain.
Verbatim NTSB analysis and probable cause from the NTSB dataset
Sources
NTSB record WPR24FA298
- Event ID
- 20240907195073
- Case number
- WPR24FA298
- 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, 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: 88ef41aac7391dc5cc01f280c858f07789405cbe31330c6e67b9ed4511bc14d2; retrieved 2026-09-15T08:57:46.636Z.