BFO85LA031 · Cessna U206F
Cessna U206F · Accident: total loss of engine power (mechanical failure) en route
From Springfield-Beckley Municipal Airport (SGH) to Naval Outlying Landing Field Webster (NUI)
Event
- NTSB case
- BFO85LA031
- 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 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
- N1803Q
- Operator
- Richard L Newman · private individual
- Onboard fatalities
- Unknown
- Route
- From Springfield-Beckley Municipal Airport (SGH), Springfield, OHTo Naval Outlying Landing Field Webster (NUI), PATUXENT RIVER, MD
- 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
- Total 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
- Engine assembly, connecting rod › Failure, total
- Fluid, oil › Starvation
Approximate · Coordinates as recorded by the NTSB; no uncertainty radius is established.
NTSB narrative
WHILE DESCENDING IN IFR CONDITIONS NEAR THE DESTINATION, THE ENG LOST POWER AT AN ALT OF ABOUT 3800 TO 4000 FT. THE PLT REQUESTED VECTORS TOWARD LAND & THE NEAREST ARPT; HOWEVER, WHEN IT BROKE OUT OF THE CLOUDS AT ABOUT 1000 FT AGL, THE ACFT WAS STILL OVER WATER. UNABLE TO REACH LAND, THE PLT DITCHED THE ACFT IN THE MOUTH OF THE POTOMAC RIVER ABOUT 3/4 MI FROM SHORE. AN EXAM OF THE ENG, REVEALED HOLES IN EACH SIDE OF THE TOP PORTION OF THE CRANKCASE BETWEEN THE #1 & #2 CYLINDERS. A TEAR DOWN OF THE ENG REVEALED THE #2 CONNECTING ROD HAD FAILED. THERE WAS EVIDENCE OF A LACK OF LUBRICATION. THE CONNECTING ROD BEARINGS HAD EVIDENCE OF EXTREME WEAR & HEAT, & THE RESPECTIVE CRANKSHAFT JOURNALS SHOWED SIGNS OF HEAT & WEAR. ALSO, THE OIL PUMP CAVITY & WALLS WERE SCRATCHED & GALLED.
Verbatim NTSB analysis from the NTSB dataset
Sources
NTSB record BFO85LA031
- Event ID
- 20001214X36379
- Case number
- BFO85LA031
- 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: df1bc5193cc1584d748a964c1acd435abfc84d235ef8ba64072dd590138d930d; retrieved 2026-09-22T01:50:03.639Z.