ATL90FA111 · Cessna P206
Cessna P206 · Accident: partial loss of engine power (mechanical failure) en route
From Asheboro, NC to an unrecorded destination
Event
- NTSB case
- ATL90FA111
- 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
- 1 · 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 P206
- 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
- N220P
- Operator
- John C. Thomas · private individual
- Onboard fatalities
- Unknown
- Route
- From Asheboro, NCTo 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 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
- Partial 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
- Induction air control/system › Disconnected
- Induction air control/system › Improper
- Induction air control/system › Incorrect
- Induction air control/system › Worn
- Other maintenance personnel › Maintenance, improper
- Other maintenance personnel › Maintenance, inspection, inadequate
Approximate · Coordinates as recorded by the NTSB; no uncertainty radius is established.
NTSB narrative
THE PILOT RADIOED HE WAS LOSING POWER AND ATTEMPTING A LANDING ON A HIGHWAY. ACCORDING TO A WITNESS WHO OBSERVED THE AIRPLANE AS IT APPROACHED AN OVERPASS, THE PILOT APPEARED TO HAVE PULLED UP TO AVOID POWER LINES, AND THEN COLLIDED WITH A TELEPHONE LINE. THE AIRPLANE IMPACTED ONTO A MEDIAN STRIP. THE INDUCTION AIR BOX DOOR SPRING WAS FOUND TO HAVE WORN COMPLETELY THROUGH THE ATTACH HOLE OF THE AIR BOX DOOR ARM. THE TOTAL SPRING LENGTH WAS 2.50 INCHES; ENGINEERING DRAWING SPECIFIES A SPRING LENGTH OF 3.66 INCHES. ALSO, THE THICKNESS OF THE ARM ITSELF WAS LESS THAN 50% OF THAT SPECIFIED BY THE DRAWING. THE BRACKET THAT THE OTHER END OF THE SPRING ATTACHES TO WAS MISLOCATED ABOUT 0.50 INCH FROM THE DRAWING DIMENSION. IN ADDITION, THE AIR BOX WAS FASTENED TOGETHER MOSTLY BY BLIND FASTENER RIVETS WHICH ARE NOT CALLED FOR ON THE DRAWING. IT WAS ALSO CAULKED WITH A SOFT SEALANT ALSO NOT CALLED FOR.
Probable cause
A LOSS OF ENGINE POWER DUE TO IMPROPER REPAIRS TO, AND INADEQUATE INSPECTION OF, THE INDUCTION AIR BOX. THE NIGHT LIGHT CONDITION WAS A CONTRIBUTING FACTOR.
Verbatim NTSB analysis and probable cause from the NTSB dataset
Sources
NTSB record ATL90FA111
- Event ID
- 20001212X23060
- Case number
- ATL90FA111
- 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: local date, investigation status. Values present in the bulk record are kept.
- The date is the local date; the NTSB stores the UTC date 1990-05-09.
- API snapshot SHA-256: a2376e6d28cfebb87993658bfd0415f5a9374ffb3cf239b5ddcb73d9194dd0c3; retrieved 2026-09-21T02:43:52.605Z.