SEA89FA160
1989-08-29 · SNOHOMISH, Washington, United States · Fatal · 1 aircraft · Status: Completed
Airport S43
Aircraft involved
Probable cause & findings
THE FAILURE OF THE PILOT OF N66QB, A BEECH J35, TO SEE AND AVOID THIS AIRCRAFT. CONTRIBUTING FACTORS WERE: THE FLIGHT PATH OF THE OTHER AIRCRAFT DIRECTLY INTO THE SETTING SUN, AND THE LOW LIGHT CONDITIONS OF DUSK ON THE GROUND BELOW.
Factual narrative
THE C-172, N49231, HAD JUST DEPARTED RWY 32 AT HARVEY FIELD, AN UNCONTROLLED AIRPORT, ON AN INSTRUMENT TRAINING FLIGHT. RADAR DATA SHOWS THAT THE C-172 WAS CLIMBING OUT AT 700-800 FPM AT 65 KTS AND ON A TRUE HEADING OF 310 DEG. THE BE-J35, N66QB, HAD DEPARTED EARLIER FROM PAYNE FIELD AT EVERETT. RADAR DATA SHOWS THAT THE BE-J35 WAS IN LEVEL FLIGHT AT 130 KTS AND ON A TRUE TRACK OF 280 DEG. THE COLLISION OCCURRED AT 1,600 FT MSL IN UNCONTROLLED AIRSPACE. THE CABIN TOP AND LEFT WING OF THE HIGH-WING C-172 DISPLAYED LINEAR SCRATCHES, GOUGES AND PAINT SMEARS WHICH MATCHED THE IMPACT DAMAGE, SCRATCHES AND GOUGES FOUND ON THE BOTTOM SURFACE OF THE LEFT WING OF THE LOW-WING BE-J35. OFFICIAL SUNSET WAS 1 MINUTE AFTER THE ACCIDENT; THE SUN WOULD HAVE BEEN 0.01 DEG ABOVE THE HORIZON AT THE COLLISION ALTITUDE, AND AT A TRUE BEARING OF 284.6 DEG FROM THE ACCIDENT SITE. WITNESSES REPORTED DUSK DARK LIGHT CONDITIONS ON THE GROUND. Source: NTSB Aviation Accident Database (Pre-2008 Archive) Retrieved: 2026-02-12
Verbatim from NTSB's published report. Source file
NTSB_1989_SEA89FA160.txt.
Findings + structured fields enriched from FAA avall.mdb.
Full investigation docket on
data.ntsb.gov ↗.
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