SEA82DA016 · Cessna TU206G
Empire Lines Cessna TU206G · Accident: loss of control on ground/water during landing
From LEWISTOWN, ID to Spokane, WA
Event
- NTSB case
- SEA82DA016
- 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 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
- N6106U
- Operator
- Empire Lines
- Onboard fatalities
- Unknown
- Route
- From LEWISTOWN, IDTo Spokane, WA
- 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
- Landing · landing roll
- 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
- Loss of control on ground/water
- 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
- Landing gear, nose gear › Binding(mechanical)
- Pilot in command › Directional control, not maintained
- Pilot in command › Operation with known deficiencies in equipment, initiated
Approximate · Coordinates as recorded by the NTSB; no uncertainty radius is established.
NTSB narrative
THE AIRCRAFT HAD A RUDDER/DIRECTIONAL CONTROL PROBLEM THAT HAD BEEN OCCURRING INTERMITTENTLY. WHEN IT OCCURRED DURING THE PREVIOUS FLIGHT, THE PILOT HAD TO USE FULL RIGHT RUDDER TO KEEP THE BALL CENTERED. BEFORE LANDING ON THAT FLIGHT, HE MADE A LOW PASS NEAR THE TOWER. TOWER PERSONNEL ADVISED THAT THE NOSE GEAR APPEARED TO BE COCKED TO THE LEFT. WHILE LANDING AFTER THAT FLIGHT, DIRECTIONAL CONTROL WAS DIFFICULT. AFTER INSPECTING THE PLANE, A MECHANIC ADVISED THAT THE NOSE GEAR APPEARED TO HAVE TOO MUCH OIL AND NOT ENOUGH AIR, CAUSING THE GEAR OLEO TO NOT FULLY EXTEND. THE PILOT ELECTED TO RETURN TO SPOKANE BEFORE HAVING IT REPAIRED. AFTER TAKEOFF, THE PROBLEM RECURRED, BUT REQUIRED FULL LEFT RUDDER. LATER, OIL WAS NOTED COMING FROM BEHIND THE CONTROL PANEL. NOT KNOWING FROM WHERE OR HOW BAD THE LEAK WAS, HE DIVERTED TO THE NEAREST AIRPORT AND LANDED WITH A 10 KNOT TAILWIND. WHEN THE NOSEWHEEL TOUCHED DOWN, THE PLANE VEERED RIGHT AND HIT A SNOWBANK. THE RUNWAY WAS TOO SLIPPERY FOR THE LEFT BRAKE TO HELP.
Verbatim NTSB analysis from the NTSB dataset
Sources
NTSB record SEA82DA016
- Event ID
- 20020917X02574
- Case number
- SEA82DA016
- 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: 4f38f38a90e7992912d1d9a27af42f34b982c50a94daaa38ebac7a6a8cb3ec5a; retrieved 2026-09-24T03:48:12.264Z.