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FTW86FA115 · Cessna P206C

16 Jun 1986 · GRAND CHENIER, LA, United States

Cessna P206C · Accident: in flight collision with terrain/water en route

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Event

NTSB case
FTW86FA115
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
Unknown

Cessna P206C

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
N8621Z
Operator
Unknown
Onboard fatalities
Unknown
Route
From not recordedTo 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 · 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
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
Destroyed

Cause areas

  • Pilot in command › Altitude, not maintained
  • Pilot in command › Flt with inadqt en route/destn facilities, performed
  • Pilot in command › In-flight planning/decision, inadequate
  • Pilot in command › Visual lookout, inadequate

Approximate · Coordinates as recorded by the NTSB; no uncertainty radius is established.

NTSB narrative

THE AIRCRAFT IMPACTED THE MARSHY TERRAIN WHILE IN A VERY SHALLOW DESCENT AND WINGS LEVEL ATTITUDE AND AT A RELATIVELY HIGH SPEED (I.E.,CRUISE). IT THEN CARTWHEELED AND SLID TO A STOP. THERE WAS EVIDENCE OF SUBSTANTIAL ENGINE POWER BEING DEVELOPED AT IMPACT. EXTENDED RANGE FUEL TANKS HAD BEEN ADDED TO THE WING TIPS ALONG WITH AN IN-CABIN TANK FOR AN EXTRA FUEL CAPACITY OF 75-80 GALLONS. ALL TANKS APPARENTLY HAD BEEN FILLED. THE POINTS OF DEPARTURE AND INTENDED LANDING ALONG WITH THE TIME OF THE ACCIDENT, ARE UNKNOWN. THE AIRCRAFT WAS LOADED WITH CONTRABAND CARGO. THE AUTOPILOT 'ALTITUDE HOLD' WAS ENGAGED. NO RADAR TRACK OF THE AIRCRAFT WAS FOUND, PROBABLY DUE TO LOW ALTITUDE FLIGHT. THE AIRCRAFT MOST PROBABLY DESCENDED DUE TO A BAROMETRIC PRESSURE CHANGE WHILE THE PILOT WAS ASLEEP OR INATTENTIVE AND IMPACTED THE TERRAIN.

Verbatim NTSB analysis from the NTSB dataset

Sources

NTSB record FTW86FA115
Event ID
20001213X33857
Case number
FTW86FA115
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: 930573bad8a2a3eecfaa865380211cf1b2f9a465805ba165fd79132af15f2112; retrieved 2026-09-21T04:31:50.725Z.