FTW89LA033 · Cessna TU206D
Cessna TU206D · Accident: total loss of engine power (non-mechanical) en route
From MTMX · Tampico to McAllen Miller International Airport (MFE)
Event
- NTSB case
- FTW89LA033
- 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 TU206D
- 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
- N72249
- Operator
- Gonzalez, Jose J. · private individual
- Onboard fatalities
- Unknown
- Route
- From MTMX · TampicoTo McAllen Miller International Airport (MFE), McAllen, TX
- 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 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
- Destroyed
Cause areas
- Fluid, fuel › Starvation
- Fuel system › Improper
- Other maintenance personnel › Maintenance, modification, improper
- Pilot in command › Operation with known deficiencies in equipment, performed
Approximate · Coordinates as recorded by the NTSB; no uncertainty radius is established.
NTSB narrative
SHORTLY AFTER ENTERING U.S. AIR SPACE, THE PLT (A MEXICAN NATIONAL) CANCELED HIS DVFR FLT PLAN. ABOUT 9 MIN LATER, HE DECLARED AN EMERGENCY & SAID THE ENG HAD LOST POWER. DURING AN EMERGENCY LANDING AT NIGHT, THE ACFT HIT TREES & CRASHED.ACCORDING TO AN FAA FORM 337, AUX FUEL TANKS HAD BEEN INSTALLED IAW STC SA2479WE. HOWEVER, THE INSTALLATION WAS NOT DOCUMENTED IN THE LOG BOOKS; THE WT & BALANCE INFO WAS NOT REVISED & THE FUEL SELECTOR & GAUGES WERE NOT PLACARDED TO REFLECT THE INCREASED CAPACITY. THE PLT RPRTD HE WAS CHANGING FUEL TANKS WHEN THE ENG DEVELOPED A 'VAPOR LOCK' & WOULD NOT RESTART. HE STATED THE 'VAPOR LOCK' PROBLEM HAD OCCURRED ON PREVIOUS FLTS, BUT HE HAD ALWAYS BEEN SUCCESSFUL IN RESTARTING THE ENG. ADDITIONALLY, HE SAID THE PROBLEM HAD NOT MANIFESTED ITSELF PRIOR TO INSTALLATION OF THE AUX TANKS. AN EXAM OF THE TANKS REVEALED NO BOOST PUMPS OR TRANSFER PUMPS WERE INSTALLED. APRX 12.5 GAL OF FUEL WAS DRAINED FROM THE ACFT; UNUSABLE FUEL WAS 7 GAL. THE FUEL SELECTOR WAS FOUND BETWEEN THE LEFT TANK & OFF POSITIONS.
Probable cause
AIRPLANE'S COLLISION WITH TREES AND TERRAIN DURING AN ATTEMPTED FORCED LANDING AT NIGHT FOLLOWING AN ENGINE FAIURE. THE ENGINE FAILURE WAS CAUSED BY FUEL STARVATION AS A RESULT OF A FAULTY FUEL SYSTEM WHICH THE OPERATOR HAD FAILED TO CORRECT.
Verbatim NTSB analysis and probable cause from the NTSB dataset
Sources
NTSB record FTW89LA033
- Event ID
- 20001213X27428
- Case number
- FTW89LA033
- 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 1988-12-28.
- API snapshot SHA-256: ef1b16305afed7a624c19152788a26278f14ac04d3670028fdbfd0f263060455; retrieved 2026-09-21T15:59:22.155Z.