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ATL04FA056 · Cessna 206H

17 Dec 2003 · Sanford, NC, United States

Cessna 206H · Accident: loss of control in flight during initial climb

From Raleigh Executive Jetport (KTTA) to Dare County Regional Airport (KMQI)

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Event

NTSB case
ATL04FA056
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
1 · 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
Instrument Meteorological Cond

Cessna 206H

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
N9562L
Onboard fatalities
Unknown
Route
From Raleigh Executive Jetport (KTTA), Sanford, NCTo Dare County Regional Airport (KMQI), Manteo, NC
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
Initial climb
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 in flight
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
Tree(s)
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

  • Pilot in command › Aircraft control, not maintained
  • Pilot in command › Spatial disorientation

Approximate · Coordinates from the NTSB case API, which marks them as estimated or does not say; no uncertainty radius is established.

NTSB narrative

The passengers described the weather as "pitch black" with fog and mist. The flight was departing runway 3, and, according to one passenger, the airplane lifted off the runway, climbed to approximately 20 to 30 feet, and began a banking turn to the left. The passenger then heard bangs or thumping noises. Another passenger estimated the airplane was airborne for about 30 seconds to a minute, and she thought maybe the airplane had turned left and was laying on the ground. Examination of the accident site revealed the main wreckage was located a wooded area approximately 1,200 feet from the left side of runway 3 and approximately 4,500 feet from the runway 3 threshold. Wreckage debris and a swath of freshly broken trees extended 240 feet. Post-accident examination of components revealed no evidence of a mechanical malfunction was observed. The spouse of the pilot estimated the pilot went to sleep around 2330 the night before the flight. She did not know what time he awoke in the morning. According to air traffic control records, the pilot telephoned the Raleigh Automated Flight Service Station (AFSS) at 0313 the morning of the flight. The passengers stated that the pilot had the airplane ready to go when they each arrived at the airport around 0445.

Probable cause

The pilot's loss of control of the airplane during takeoff initial climb due to spatial disorientation, which resulted in an inflight collision with trees and the ground. Factors were the dark night, fog, and low ceilings.

Verbatim NTSB analysis and probable cause from the NTSB dataset

Sources

NTSB record ATL04FA056
Event ID
20031224X02085
Case number
ATL04FA056
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, coordinates. 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: 3ed9e2e2ea5db4079155a4a36d34ecf4d38e8f078d99b50924bbfc90924b0ee2; retrieved 2026-09-20T18:42:25.164Z.