NTSB CAROL · Event
Event SEA06LA064
Aircraft involved
Probable cause & findings
The pilot did not abort the takeoff and subsequently did not maintain aircraft control during the initial takeoff climb. The installation of the wrong propeller assembly and inadequate maintenance were factors.
Factual narrative
On March 12, 2006, at 1500 Pacific standard time, an experimental Sessi Midget Mustang SK-1, N202, recently purchased and operated by the pilot as a 14 CFR Part 91 personal flight, collided with the terrain during takeoff from Snohomish County Airport (Paine Field), Everett, Washington. Visual meteorological conditions prevailed at the time and no flight plan was filed for the intended cross country flight. The aircraft was substantially damaged and the private pilot, the sole occupant, was not injured. The flight's intended destination was to Caldwell, Idaho. The pilot reported that he just purchased this aircraft and this was his first flight in the aircraft to fly it back home to Texas. The pilot stated that during the takeoff roll from runway 34 left, the engine was running smooth. Full throttle was applied and at approximately 70 mph, lift off occurred and the aircraft entered a nose high attitude and began a continuous stall buffet. The pilot pitched the nose down to gain airspeed several times. Each time he pulled the stick back it would stall. The pilot stated that the aircraft attained about 30 to 35 feet above ground level, and while he was scanning the engine instruments, the aircraft drifted to the left of the runway. The pilot applied "hard right aileron to avoid hitting glide slope antenna..." The aircraft stalled and impacted the terrain next to the runway in an uncontrolled attitude with full throttle. The pilot stated that this was also the first flight for this aircraft since a new wood propeller had been put on, after an earlier event prior to the purchase, in which the original propeller had been damaged. The pilot indicated that the wrong pitch and diameter propeller had been used and the aircraft was signed off as airworthy without having been test flown. The propeller blades were destroyed during the crash sequence. The pilot reported that he just purchased this aircraft and this was his first flight in the aircraft to fly it back home to Texas. The pilot stated that during the takeoff roll from runway 34 left, the engine was running smooth. Full throttle was applied and at approximately 70 mph, lift off occurred and the aircraft entered a nose high attitude and began a continuous stall buffet. The pilot pitched the nose down to gain airspeed several times. Each time he pulled the stick back it would stall. The pilot stated that the aircraft attained about 30 to 35 feet above ground level, and while he was scanning the engine instruments, the aircraft drifted to the left of the runway. The pilot applied "hard right aileron to avoid hitting glide slope antenna..." The aircraft stalled and impacted the terrain next to the runway in an uncontrolled attitude with full throttle. The pilot stated that this was also the first flight for this aircraft since a new wood propeller had been put on, after an earlier event prior to the purchase, in which the original propeller had been damaged. The pilot indicated that the wrong pitch and diameter propeller had been used and the aircraft was signed off as airworthy without having been test flown. The propeller blades were destroyed during the crash sequence. Source: NTSB Aviation Accident Database (Pre-2008 Archive) Retrieved: 2026-02-12
Verbatim from NTSB's published report. Source file
NTSB_2006_SEA06LA064.txt.
Findings + structured fields enriched from FAA avall.mdb.
Full investigation docket on
data.ntsb.gov ↗.
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Related research
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Academic papers and agency reports matching this event's aircraft type or causal vocabulary (stall, maintenance). Sourced from NASA NTRS, NTSB Safety Studies, FAA CAMI, AOPA Air Safety Institute, Embry-Riddle Scholarly Commons, arXiv, and the Semantic Scholar academic graph.
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- Embry-Riddle Scholarly Commons 2026 · Journal article (IJAAA)
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Modern aviation maintenance operates within increasingly data-intensive technological environments, yet the operational integration of predictive maintenance into routine decision-making remains incon…
- NASA NTRS 2026 · Conference Paper
Computational Analysis of Steady State Aerodynamics of Transonic Truss-Braced Wing Configuration in Deep Stall
This study presents a computational investigation of steady state aerodynamics of the Subsonic Ultra-Green Aircraft Research (SUGAR) Transonic Truss-Braced Wing (TTBW) configuration over a wide range …
- Semantic Scholar 2025 · Article (Applied Sciences)
Decision-Making Framework for Aviation Safety in Predictive Maintenance Strategies
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- Embry-Riddle Scholarly Commons 2024 · Journal article (JAAER)
Low-Resource Automatic Speech Recognition Domain Adaptation – A Case-Study in Aviation Maintenance
With timeliness and efficiency being critical in the aviation maintenance industry, the need has been growing for smart technological solutions that optimize and streamline the different underlying ta…
- Embry-Riddle Scholarly Commons 2024 · Journal article (JAAER)
A New Trajectory in UAV Safety: Leveraging Reinforcement Learning for Distance Maintenance Under Wind Variations
In the field of aviation, safety is a critical cornerstone, and the operation of Unmanned Aerial Vehicle (UAV) systems is deeply connected with this principle.
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