MIA96FA100 · Cessna U206G
Cessna U206G · Accident: partial loss of engine power (non-mechanical) during initial climb
From an unrecorded airport to DTF · DRY TORTUGAS, FL
Event
- NTSB case
- MIA96FA100
- 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
- 5 · 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 U206G
- 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
- N9983Z
- Operator
- Unknown
- Onboard fatalities
- Unknown
- Route
- From not recordedTo DTF · DRY TORTUGAS, FL
- 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
- Partial 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
- Stall/mush
- DamageDestroyed: beyond practical repair. Substantial: damage that affects the structure, performance or handling and normally needs major repair. Minor: less than that. Glossary
- Destroyed
Cause areas
- Pilot in command › In-flight planning/decision, improper
- Pilot in command › Maneuver to avoid obstructions, intentional
Approximate · Coordinates as recorded by the NTSB; no uncertainty radius is established.
NTSB narrative
After takeoff, according to radar data, the airplane climbed to 200 feet, then descended to 100 feet. The pilot was advised to turn right to pass behind the approach corridor for a departing airplane. Witnesses observed the airplane flying towards buildings, and stated that the airplane, which was about 50-100 feet above the water, started banking to the right which increased to near a 90-degree angle of bank. The airplane then pitched nose down and impacted the water nose and right wing low, rolled inverted and sank in about 6 feet of water about 20 yards from a seawall. Examination and testing of the right magneto revealed that the point gap was 0.018 inch, which is greater than specified by the manufacturer, and the magneto fired intermittently throughout the entire rpm range. After adjusting the point gap to within limits, the right magneto operated normally. The engine was then run with replacement magnetos installed with their point gaps set as found on the accident magnetos. During the right magneto check, the rpm drop was 156 rpm greater than the left magneto check. Damage was also noted to the #1 cylinder top ignition lead. Examination of the aft bottom section of the right float revealed numerous damaged rivets which join the keel to the bottom skin panel near the aft bulkhead.
Probable cause
The pilot's improper decision to continue the flight rather than making an immediate water landing due to the low altitude of the airplane and obstructions ahead, which led to his intentional maneuver to avoid the obstructions and subsequent inadvertent stall and loss of control. Contributing to the accident were: an inadequate 100-hour inspection of the airplane by company maintenance personnel for failure to fix a damaged ignition lead and a partially separated keel on one of the floats, the pilot's inadequate preflight of the airplane for his failure to pump a float to remove water, and the pilot's intentional operation of the airplane with an excessive magneto drop.
Verbatim NTSB analysis and probable cause from the NTSB dataset
Sources
NTSB record MIA96FA100
- Event ID
- 20001208X05447
- Case number
- MIA96FA100
- 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: e9bee58af297b2822354ca6219f09c74b5fbeb1cad16f2a5c1f56187fe7657f1; retrieved 2026-09-18T13:38:18.368Z.