SEA87MA035 · Cessna TU206G
Cessna TU206G · Accident: total loss of engine power (non-mechanical) en route
From Mojave Air & Space Port (MHV) to Harry Reid International Airport (LAS)
Event
- NTSB case
- SEA87MA035
- 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
- 6 · 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
- Instrument Meteorological Cond
Cessna TU206G
- 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
- N732ZF
- Operator
- John A. Giddings · private individual
- Onboard fatalities
- Unknown
- Route
- From Mojave Air & Space Port (MHV), Mojave, CATo Harry Reid International Airport (LAS), Las Vegas, NV
- 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 exhaustion
- 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 › Exhaustion
- Pilot in command › Fuel supply, inadequate
- Pilot in command › In-flight planning/decision, improper
- Pilot in command › Preflight planning/preparation, inadequate
Approximate · Coordinates as recorded by the NTSB; no uncertainty radius is established.
NTSB narrative
WHILE EN ROUTE AT NIGHT ON AN IFR FLT PLAN, THE ACFT RAN OUT OF FUEL. SUBSEQUENTLY, THE PLT WAS PROVIDED VECTORS TOWARD A HIWAY FOR A FORCED LNDG. HOWEVER, BEFORE REACHING THE AREA OF THE HIWAY, THE ACFT CRASHED ON RISING TERRAIN AT AN ELEV OF ABOUT 4000 FT. EXCEPT FOR LACK OF FUEL, NO PREIMPACT ACFT OR ENG PROBLEM WAS FND. APRX 26 MI NNE, THE 1838 PST LAS VEGAS WX WAS IN PART: ESTIMATED 400 FT BROKEN, 1500 FT OVERCAST, VIS 4 MI WITH FOG & LGT RAIN. THE ELEV OF THE WX FACILITY WAS 2174 FT. AN INV REVEALED THE ACFT HAD BEEN FULLY SERVICED WITH FUEL ON 12/3/86 & HAD FLOWN APRX 4 HRS PRIOR TO THE ACDNT FLT. NO RECORD WAS FND OF ANY FURTHER REFUELING. THE ACFT HAD A FUEL CAPACITY OF 88 GAL, OF WHICH, 4 GAL WAS CONSIDERED AS UNUSABLE. ACCORDING TO AN ESTIMATE BASED ON FLT MANUAL INFO, THE ACFT WOULD HAVE CONSUMED NEARLY88 GAL OF FUEL SINCE THE LAST KNOWN REFUELING. ON 9/3/86, WHEN THE PLT TOOK A MED EXAM, HE RPRTD HE HAD A TOTAL FLT TIME OF 2930 HRS.
Verbatim NTSB analysis from the NTSB dataset
Sources
NTSB record SEA87MA035
- Event ID
- 20001213X35443
- Case number
- SEA87MA035
- 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 1986-12-07.
- API snapshot SHA-256: e37a47177dc60cb29f1a089f96ff45ed603c15333f3894cfb32f36679788d7f4; retrieved 2026-09-21T04:18:19.601Z.