Air Sunshine Flight 1721
Cessna 402C · Accident: total loss of engine power (mechanical failure) en route
From Sarasota Bradenton International Airport (SRQ) to Fort Lauderdale Hollywood International Airport (FLL)
Event
- NTSB case
- MIA93FA183
- 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 402C
- Aircraft type
- Cessna 402
- 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
- N206RH
- Operator
- Air Sunshine
- Onboard fatalities
- Unknown
- Route
- From Sarasota Bradenton International Airport (SRQ), Sarasota, FLTo Fort Lauderdale Hollywood International Airport (FLL), Fort Lauderdale, 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
- En route · descent
- 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 (mechanical failure)
- 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
- Pilot in command › Emergency procedure, not performed
- Pilot in command › Propeller feathering, not performed
Approximate · Coordinates as recorded by the NTSB; no uncertainty radius is established.
NTSB narrative
THE PILOT WAS DEVIATING AROUND WEATHER DURING DESCENT WHEN HE NOTED THE FUEL FLOW AND MANIFOLD PRESSURE ON THE LEFT ENGINE OSCILLATING. BECAUSE THE PROPELLER WAS STILL TURNING HE ELECTED NOT TO FEATHER THE LEFT PROPELLER. THE AIRPLANE WOULD NOT MAINTAIN ALTITUDE SO HE LOWERED THE LANDING GEAR AND DITCHED THE AIRPLANE IN A SWAMP. EXAMINATION OF THE LEFT FUEL TANK REVEALED THE FUEL FLOAT VALVE ACTUATORS AND FLOAT ARMS EXCESSIVELY WORN. THIS CONDITION WOULD ALLOW UNMETERED AIR INTO THE FUEL LINES. ALSO NOTED WAS THE CONDITION OF ONE OF THE LEFT FUEL VALVES THAT COULD JAM OPEN ALLOWING THE FUEL PICKUP TO UNPORT AND INDUCE EXCESSIVE AIR INTO THE FUEL LINES.
Probable cause
THE FAILURE OF THE PILOT TO FEATHER THE PROPELLER WHEN THE ENGINE LOST POWER, AND HIS FAILURE TO FOLLOW THE EMERGENCY PROCEDURE CHECKLIST. CONTRIBUTING TO THE ACCIDENT WAS THE INADEQUATE DESIGN OF THE FUEL TANK FLOAT VALVES WHICH ALLOWED FOR EXCESSIVE WEAR AND SUBSEQUENT INDUCTION OF UNMETERED AIR INTO THE FUEL LINES.
Verbatim NTSB analysis and probable cause from the NTSB dataset
Sources
NTSB record MIA93FA183
- Event ID
- 20001211X13193
- Case number
- MIA93FA183
- 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: ff7db6554fdbede695e6ff93211451a845d2acfae051a7bc052e53dfdb01f994; retrieved 2026-09-18T18:31:14.511Z.