NTSB CAROL · Event
Event SEA87FA165
Registry · N41871
FAA Aircraft Registry record.
Make / Model
FLEET FLEET 16B
Engine
CONT MOTOR R670-SERIES (225 hp)
Seats / Engines
2 seats · 1 engine
Last airworthiness date
19560315
ADS-B equipped
Yes — Mode-S A4F53F
Registrant of record
ATKINSON JAMES A
Source: FAA Aircraft Registry (releasable master file).
Aircraft involved
Factual narrative
THE PILOT EXECUTED AN EMERGENCY LANDING ON A GOLF COURSE AFTER A POWER LOSS WHICH HE ATTRIBUTED TO CARBURETOR ICE. SUBSEQUENT TO THE LANDING THE AIRCRAFT WAS FUELED WITH 10 GALLONS OF AUTOMOTIVE GASOLINE. THE FUEL WAS CHECKED FOR WATER AT THE STRAINER DRAIN AND THE PILOT AND RATED PASSENGER THEN TAXIED OUT CONDUCTING AN ENGINE RUNUP BEFORE TAKING OFF. SHORTLY AFTER TAKEOFF THE ENGINE ABRUPTLY QUIT AND THE PILOT ATTEMPTED TO TURN BACK TO THE GOLF COURSE, THE ONLY SUITABLE LANDING AREA AVAILABLE. THE ALTITUDE OF THE AIRCRAFT AT THE TIME OF THE POWER LOSS PRECLUDED A SUCCESSFUL COURSE REVERSAL AND LANDING AND THE AIRCRAFT COLLIDED WITH A TREE. NO MECHANICAL MALFUNCTIONCOULD BE RELATED TO THE ENGINE NOR WAS THERE ANY EVIDENCE OF WATER IN THE FUEL. ALTHOUGH CARBURETOR ICING CONDITIONS EXISTED AT THE TIME OF THE ACCIDENT THE RAPIDITY OF THE POWER CESSATION WAS SUCH THAT CARBURETOR ICING WAS UNLIKELY. Source: NTSB Aviation Accident Database (Pre-2008 Archive) Retrieved: 2026-02-12
Verbatim from NTSB's published report. Source file
NTSB_1987_SEA87FA165.txt.
Findings + structured fields enriched from FAA avall.mdb.
Full investigation docket on
data.ntsb.gov ↗.
Beyond the agency record
Search this event elsewhere.
Pre-filled searches into the sources where news + community discussion of aviation events lives. External sources are reported, not agency. Treat them as signal that something happened, not as fact about what happened.
Entity-clustered aviation events in the press — last 24 hr + 30-day archive.
Official agency record + docket.
Investigative docket: factual reports, photos, transcripts.
Long-running aviation incident database (Flight Safety Foundation).
Community NTSB synthesis blog — often has photos and witness reports.
Gold-standard aviation incident blog.
Aviation industry news search.
GA pilot forum — informed but rumor-prone.
GA pilot subreddit search.
Tail-number page — flight history (free tier limited).
AOPA Air Safety Institute search.
Mainstream press coverage. Recent events only.
Privacy-preserving news search.
External links open in a new tab. We don't ingest their content; we deep-link search queries.
Related research
What the literature says.
Academic papers and agency reports matching this event's aircraft type or causal vocabulary (icing). Sourced from NASA NTRS, NTSB Safety Studies, FAA CAMI, AOPA Air Safety Institute, Embry-Riddle Scholarly Commons, arXiv, and the Semantic Scholar academic graph.
- NASA NTRS 2026 · Contractor Report (CR)
Icing Physics Studies Using the 3D SIDRM Test Article: 2023 Icing Tests Analysis
In-flight icing is an important safety issue and is a factor that affects aircraft design and performance. Newer regulations are driving a need for improvements in airframe and engine icing simulation…
- arXiv 2025 · arXiv preprint
Multi-Agent Deep Reinforcement Learning for UAV-Assisted 5G Network Slicing: A Comparative Study of MAPPO, MADDPG, and MADQN
The growing demand for robust, scalable wireless networks in the 5G-and-beyond era has led to the deployment of Unmanned Aerial Vehicles (UAVs) as mobile base stations to enhance coverage in dense urb…
- Embry-Riddle Scholarly Commons 2025 · Journal article (JAAER)
A Mathematical Model on the Temporal Dynamics of Aviation Competitive Pricing
This study investigates the competitive dynamics of airport pricing using U.S. airport data to validate the findings. It employs linear and nonlinear ordinary differential equation models to analyze t…
- NASA NTRS 2025 · Presentation
NASA Icing Update – March 2025
This NASA Icing Update was prepared for presentation to the SAE International AC-9C Inflight Icing Technology Committee. This update includes the following topics: planned Rotational Icing Scaling tes…
- arXiv 2024 · arXiv preprint
An energy-stable phase-field model for droplet icing simulations
A phase-field model for three-phase flows is established by combining the Navier-Stokes (NS) and the energy equations, with the Allen-Cahn (AC) and Cahn-Hilliard (CH) equations and is demonstrated ana…
- NASA NTRS 2024 · Presentation
NASA Icing Update – Oct 2024
This presentation provides a status update on select NASA icing research activities for the SAE AC-9C Icing Technical Committee Meeting on Oct 21, 2024.
Browse the full corpus — academia portal ↗