Stanley Air Taxi Cessna U206F accident
Cessna U206F · Accident: in flight collision with terrain/water while maneuvering
From Challis Airport (LLJ) to an unrecorded destination
Event
- NTSB case
- SEA00FA012
- 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
- 4 · 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 U206F
- 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
- N902CT
- Operator
- Stanley Air Taxi
- Onboard fatalities
- Unknown
- Route
- From Challis Airport (LLJ), Challis, IDTo not recorded
- 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
- Maneuvering
- 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
- In flight collision with terrain/water
- 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 › Aircraft control, not maintained
Approximate · Coordinates as recorded by the NTSB; no uncertainty radius is established.
NTSB narrative
A witness observed the aircraft approach the airstrip from the west, for landing to the east. While on final approach, power fluctuations were heard. The aircraft touched down on the approach end of the airstrip, then bounced into the air to about 20 feet. The witness then heard the pilot apply corrective power for about three to five seconds before full power was applied. The aircraft continued to travel the length of the airstrip, gaining little altitude, before the witness lost sight of the aircraft beyond the trees at the upper end of the airstrip. The aircraft continued up a narrow valley surrounded by rising terrain. About one mile into the canyon, the aircraft collided with the valley floor in a near vertical attitude. During the post-accident investigation, no evidence was found of a mechanical failure or malfunction. The owner/operator of the aircraft reported that the pilot was aware that landings were to be made to the east and takeoff to the west. Takeoff to the east is not recommended due to rapidly rising terrain.
Probable cause
Aircraft control was not maintained. The pilot's improper decision to abort the landing and flight into a box canyon were factors.
Verbatim NTSB analysis and probable cause from the NTSB dataset
Sources
NTSB record SEA00FA012
- Event ID
- 20001212X20048
- Case number
- SEA00FA012
- Dataset
- historical-pre2008
- Source SHA-256
- 89e2df6d848e7ab3b42e7d7c7a03ff403303057a26ca04c95b3ea67201c3ce74
Source notes (5)
- 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: 8ce5a8c20bee55d395cb288565662f312000bdce9ab4a063a54605d35facac59; retrieved 2026-09-18T13:14:56.254Z.
- The NTSB's operator name is blank for N902CT; the operator shown is the name the NTSB records it doing business as.