NYC96LA080 · Cessna U206G
Cessna U206G · Accident: total loss of engine power (non-mechanical) en route
From Grand Strand Airport (CRE) to N44 · LA GRANGEVILLE, NY
Event
- NTSB case
- NYC96LA080
- 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
- General aviation
- 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
- N9625R
- Operator
- Herbert R. Styles · private individual
- Onboard fatalities
- Unknown
- Route
- From Grand Strand Airport (CRE), Myrtle Beach, SCTo N44 · LA GRANGEVILLE, NY
- 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 91: General Aviation
- 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
- En route · cruise
- 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 contamination; Fuel starvation; Tree(s)
- 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 › Contamination
- Fluid, fuel › Starvation
- Fuel system, filter › Blocked(partial)
- Maintenance, service of aircraft/equipment › Improper
Approximate · Estimated position: the centre of Old Bridge, NJ, the place the record names. Not the accident site.
NTSB narrative
The turbine powered Cessna 206 was cruising at 7500 feet, when the engine lost power. The engine was not equipped with an auto ignition system, and the pilot did not attempt to restart the engine. During a forced landing, the airplane arrived over an airport at 2000 feet AGL; however, after turning downwind and then final, the pilot was unable to reach the airport due to strong surface winds. He attempted to reach an open field, and the airplane struck a tree. The airframe fuel filter was found in the bypass configuration with a clogged filter element and with visible contaminants in the fuel. The contaminated fuel was examined and was found to contain a higher than normal gum content. The fuel downstream of the engine filter was clean with no visible contamination. Further investigation revealed the airplane had been purchased for salvage by the operator after it was involved in an accident. Turbine fuel was not available at the airport, where the airplane had been stored. The airplane had been refueled with turbine fuel removed from the wings of other airplanes that were stored at the facility. The contamination was attributed to old fuel. Also, a check of the fuel filter disclosed an inoperative electrical switch, which prevented the fuel filter bypass light from illuminating.
Probable cause
fuel contamination, due to improper servicing of the aircraft, which resulted in fuel starvation, loss of engine power, a forced landing, and collision with a tree. The strong surface wind was a related factor.
Verbatim NTSB analysis and probable cause from the NTSB dataset
Sources
NTSB record NYC96LA080
- Event ID
- 20001208X05656
- Case number
- NYC96LA080
- 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: 49caaaae919d855154880dca64d2f989518d01a38a900531ea72bbfe8d9c407f; retrieved 2026-09-21T12:50:10.137Z.