IAD02LA041 · Cessna U206F
Cessna U206F · Accident: partial loss of engine power (non-mechanical) on approach
From Knox County Regional Airport (RKD) to MARTINICUS ISLE, ME (no airport)
Event
- NTSB case
- IAD02LA041
- 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
- Unknown
- 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
- N1523U
- Operator
- Unknown
- Onboard fatalities
- Unknown
- Route
- From Knox County Regional Airport (RKD), Rockland, METo MARTINICUS ISLE, ME (no airport)
- 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
- Approach · VFR pattern final
- 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
- Partial loss of engine power (non-mechanical)
- 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/operator management › Condition(s)/step(s) not listed
- Fuel system, filter › Blocked(partial)
Approximate · Coordinates as recorded by the NTSB; no uncertainty radius is established.
NTSB narrative
The pilot reported a partial loss of engine power while on final approach and he made a forced landing to the right of the runway, collapsing the main gear. Examination of the engine revealed that the fuel metering unit inlet screen was 75 percent blocked with green, lint-like debris. The debris was removed from the screen. The engine started normally and ran without interruption. The operator used the Cessna Progressive Care and Continuous Inspection (CPCCI) program to maintain the 1973 U206F airplane. According to Cessna, the CPCCI program was designed for 1977 through 1986 airplanes. However, Cessna established procedures for vintage airplanes not specifically covered in this program. The CPCCI Operations Manual stated, "After reviewing the specific aircraft, add inspection requirements to the Operation Schedule for specific items which were not covered." A review of the 1969 through 1976 206 Service Manual revealed that the "fuel injector screen" should be inspected "each 50 hours." According to the TCM 100-hour maintenance schedule, "remove fuel metering unit inlet screen and inspect for foreign material." A review of the 1977 through 1986 206 Service Manual revealed that there was no requirement to inspect the fuel injector screen. Cessna could not explain why the inspection was included in the 1969 through 1976 206 Service Manual, and not in the 1977 through 1986 206 service manual. On April 17, 2002, the operator added the fuel metering unit inlet screen inspection to Operation #1 and #3, item J25, to the company's CPCCI program.
Probable cause
A partially blocked fuel metering unit inlet screen, which resulted in a partial loss of engine power. Also causal, was the operator's lack of inlet screen inspection procedures.
Verbatim NTSB analysis and probable cause from the NTSB dataset
Sources
NTSB record IAD02LA041
- Event ID
- 20020501X00599
- Case number
- IAD02LA041
- 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: 7760a3a8eef41fe536238b311cf3be56f8137c0234f7d2784cf5f0a599d02cea; retrieved 2026-09-22T11:02:04.933Z.