Rust's Flying Service Cessna 206G accident
Cessna 206G · Accident: total loss of engine power (non-mechanical) during initial climb
From an unrecorded airport to Lake Hood Seaplane Base (LHD)
Event
- NTSB case
- ANC95LA126
- 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
- 0 · all aircraft and ground
- Ground fatalities
- 0
- 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
- Charter & commuter
- 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 206G
- Aircraft type
- Cessna 206
- 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
- N4596U
- Operator
- Rust'S Flying Service
- Onboard fatalities
- Unknown
- Route
- From not recordedTo Lake Hood Seaplane Base (LHD), Anchorage, AK
- Aircraft age
- Not recorded
- 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 135: Air Taxi & Commuter
- 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
- Initial climb
- First occurrenceThe 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
- Total loss of engine power (non-mechanical)
- Also codedOther events the NTSB coded in the sequence, such as a wire strike after a loss of power. Flight Findings uses them for its kinds of event. Glossary
- Fuel starvation
- 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
- Fluid, fuel › Starvation
- Pilot in command › Aircraft handling, improper
Approximate · Coordinates as recorded by the NTSB; no uncertainty radius is established.
NTSB narrative
THE PILOT AND THREE PASSENGERS WERE DEPARTING A REMOTE LAKE IN A FLOAT EQUIPPED AIRPLANE ON THE RETURN PORTION OF AN ON-DEMAND CHARTER FLIGHT. THE PILOT PERFORMED A HIGH SPEED STEP TAXI AT THE NORTHWEST PORTION OF THE LAKE, WHICH INCLUDED ABOUT 225 DEGREES OF TURN TO THE LEFT. AT THE COMPLETION OF THE TURN, THE PILOT CONTINUED WITH THE TAKEOFF RUN ON AN EASTERLY HEADING. THE RIGHT FUEL TANK HAD BEEN SELECTED FOR TAKEOFF, AND IT CONTAINED ABOUT 15 GALLONS OF FUEL. ABOUT 45 SECONDS AFTER TAKEOFF, THE ENGINE QUIT, AND THE PILOT PERFORMED AN EMERGENCY LANDING IN AN ADJACENT CREEK. DURING THE LANDING, THE AIRPLANE STRUCK A GRAVEL BAR AND NOSED OVER. A POST-ACCIDENT EXAMINATION OF THE AIRPLANE DID NOT DISCLOSE ANY MALFUNCTION. THE ENGINE WAS STARTED AND DEVELOPED FULL POWER. ACCORDING TO THE PILOT'S OPERATING HANDBOOK, PROLONGED UNCOORDINATED FLIGHT SUCH AS SLIPS OR SKIDS WITH LOW FUEL RESERVES COULD UNCOVER THE FUEL TANK OUTLETS, CAUSING FUEL STARVATION AND ENGINE STOPPAGE. THE STEP TAXI TURN WAS A (PROLONGED) WINGS LEVEL TURN.
Probable cause
THE PILOT'S IMPROPER HANDLING OF THE AIRCRAFT (PROLONGED YAWING MANEUVER DURING STEP TAXI TURN), WHICH RESULTED IN UNCOVERING OF THE FUEL TANK OUTLETS AND SUBSEQUENT FUEL STARVATION DURING TAKEOFF.
Verbatim NTSB analysis and probable cause from the NTSB dataset
Sources
NTSB record ANC95LA126
- Event ID
- 20001207X04122
- Case number
- ANC95LA126
- Dataset
- historical-pre2008
- Source SHA-256
- 89e2df6d848e7ab3b42e7d7c7a03ff403303057a26ca04c95b3ea67201c3ce74
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. 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: eaaef1353ab78c8bc9b2d24e5e6768da30ab6cf52761e1e8467b79a1004beac2; retrieved 2026-09-18T17:58:38.317Z.