SEA82DA087 · Cessna 206
Cessna 206 · Accident: total loss of engine power (mechanical failure) en route
From Renton, WA to Renton, WA
Event
- NTSB case
- SEA82DA087
- 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 206
- 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
- N60092
- Operator
- Herman M. Pfahl · private individual
- Onboard fatalities
- Unknown
- Route
- From Renton, WATo Renton, 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
- 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
- Not recorded
Cause areas
- Engine assembly, connecting rod › Undetermined
Approximate · Coordinates as recorded by the NTSB; no uncertainty radius is established.
NTSB narrative
ACCORDING TO THE PILOT, THE AIRCRAFT WAS ON ITS FIRST FLIGHT AFTER A MAJOR ENGINE OVERHAUL AND WAS BEING FLOWN FOR MAINTENANCE EVALUATION. ABOUT 45 MINUTES AFTER TAKEOFF, THE PILOT REQUESTED A DESCENT FROM 7500 FEET MSL. AFTER ENTERING AN OVERCAST, THE ENGINE SPUTTERED AND BEGAN TO VIBRATE AND LOSE POWER. THE ENGINE THEN STOPPED AND WOULD NOT RESTART, AND THE PILOT DECLARED A "MAY DAY." THE PLANE BROKE OUT OF THE OVERCAST OVER A LAKE AT ABOUT 2200 FEET. SUBSEQUENTLY, THE PILOT MADE A CONTROLLED LANDING NEAR BOATS ABOUT ONE MILE FROM THE SHORE. THE OCCUPANTS WERE RESCUED IN LESS THAN A MINUTE. LATER, THE AIRCRAFT WAS RECOVERED FROM THE LAKE WHERE IT HAD SUNK IN ABOUT 90 FT OF WATER. AN ENGINE TEARDOWN REVEALED THAT THE NO. 5 CONNECTING ROD HAD SEPARATED FROM THE PISTON. THE STUB OF THE CONNECTING ROD HAD BEAT A HOLE IN THE LEFT SIDE OF THE CRANKCASE, WHICH IN TURN, RESULTED IN OIL STARVATION.
Verbatim NTSB analysis from the NTSB dataset
Sources
NTSB record SEA82DA087
- Event ID
- 20020917X04095
- Case number
- SEA82DA087
- 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: 932aa854364de21d9dbf3cb0691978a93d039e99538a499c637724751ee1c93b; retrieved 2026-09-24T02:58:58.517Z.