Hawkins Air Cessna 402B TS accident
Cessna 402B TS · Accident: total loss of engine power (mechanical failure) en route
From Harry Reid International Airport (LAS) to Reno Tahoe International Airport (RNO)
Event
- NTSB case
- SEA85LA032
- 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
- Charter & commuter
- 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 402B TS
- Aircraft type
- Cessna 402
- 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
- N51SA
- Operator
- Hawkins Air
- Onboard fatalities
- Unknown
- Route
- From Harry Reid International Airport (LAS), Las Vegas, NVTo Reno Tahoe International Airport (RNO), Reno, 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 135: Air Taxi & Commuter
- 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 (mechanical failure)
- 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 contamination; Fuel starvation
- 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
- Company maintenance personnel › Maintenance, service of aircraft/equipment, inadequate
- Fluid, fuel › Starvation
- Fluid, fuel › Water
- Fuel system › Ice
- Fuel system, filter › Blocked(partial)
Approximate · Coordinates as recorded by the NTSB; no uncertainty radius is established.
NTSB narrative
WHILE CRUISING AT 1600 FT MSL ON TOP OF CLOUDS, A LOSS OF POWER IN THE LEFT ENG OCCURRED. THE PLT ATTEMPTED TO RESTART THE ENG, BUT WAS UNABLE. HE FEATHER THE ENG WHILE DIVERTING TO TONOPATH, NV. THE ACFT WOULD NOT MAINTAIN ALT USING 1 ENG. THE LAST REPORTED WX AT TONOPAH WAS 400 FT BROKEN, 800 FT OVERCAST. OVER TONOPAH, THE PLT MADE A DESCENDING SPIRAL IN IMC. DURING THE DESCENT, ICING CONDITIONS WERE ENCOUNTERED. THE ACFT BROKE OUT OF THE CLOUDS AT ABOUT 400 FT AGL (AT NIGHT), BUT THE PLT COULD NOT SEE THE ARPT. HE STILL COULD NOT MAINTAIN ALT & MADE A FORCED LANDING WITH THE GEAR RETRACTED. AN EXAM OF THE LEFT ENG REVEALED NO PREIMPACT FAILURE OR MALFUNCTION. AN EXAM OF THE LEFT FUEL SELECTOR BOWL REVEALED SIGNS OF MICROBIOLOGICAL GROWTH. ALSO, THERE WAS HEAVY MICROBIOLOGICAL GROWTH ON THE LEFT FUEL FILTER. WATER & MICROBIOLOGICAL GROWTH WERE FOUND IN THE LEFT FUEL TANK. STC SA117NW REQUIRED THE ADDITION OF ANTI-ICING & ANTI-BIOLOGICAL ADDITIVES TO THE FUEL. NO ADDIVTUE WAS USED AT THE PREVIOUS REFUELING.
Verbatim NTSB analysis from the NTSB dataset
Sources
NTSB record SEA85LA032
- Event ID
- 20001214X41899
- Case number
- SEA85LA032
- 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: 40a2957900007b6da08c32c26bfc5d882b654b94d04dad6cee7f36e484f1abb9; retrieved 2026-09-18T20:33:30.188Z.