DFW05CA087 · Cessna TU206G
Cessna TU206G · Accident: loss of engine power on approach
From Addison Airport (ADS) to Lancaster Airport (LNC)
Event
- NTSB case
- DFW05CA087
- 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 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
- N6211Z
- Operator
- Unknown
- Onboard fatalities
- Unknown
- Route
- From Addison Airport (ADS), Addison, TXTo Lancaster Airport (LNC), Lancaster, TX
- 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
- 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 engine power
- 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 starvation/exhaustion
- 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
- Fluid, fuel › Starvation/exhaustion
- Pilot in command › In-flight planning/decision, improper
Approximate · Coordinates from the NTSB case API, which marks them as estimated or does not say; no uncertainty radius is established.
NTSB narrative
The 24,611-hour airline transport rated pilot made a forced landing to an open field after a total loss of engine power while on a visual approach. He did not visually check the fuel tanks prior to take off and he could not recall what the fuel gauges indicated during the flight. However, he thought that both auxiliary fuel tanks were full, and both main fuel tanks were almost full. The power loss occurred when the pilot moved the fuel selector valve from the left main fuel tank to the right main fuel tank in preparation to land. The pilot attempted to re-start the engine by switching the fuel selector valve back to the left tank, but to no avail. Examination of the both wings revealed the right main and auxiliary fuel tanks were breached from impact. When the system was pressurized, fuel was noted in the auxiliary tank's fuel lines. Both of the main tank's fuel screens were absent of debris. At the time the airplane was recovered, there was no fuel in either tank. The left main and auxiliary tanks were intact, and both of the main tank's fuel screens were absent of debris. At the time the airplane was recovered, approximately nine gallons of fuel were drained from the auxiliary tank and the main tank was empty. Examination of the accident site where the airplane came to rest revealed the grass was discolored yellow below the area of the right auxiliary tank, the inboard section of the right main tank, and the left auxiliary tank. According to an FAA inspector who examined the amphibian airplane at the accident site, when he opened the left auxiliary fuel cap, fuel poured out of the tank and onto the ground. Following recovery to a secure location, the engine was test-run on the airframe, utilizing a test propeller. The engine started immediately and ran at various power settings without interruptions. No mechanical anomalies were noted.
Probable cause
The pilot's mismanagement of the available fuel supply, which resulted in a total loss of engine power due to fuel starvation.
Verbatim NTSB analysis and probable cause from the NTSB dataset
Sources
NTSB record DFW05CA087
- Event ID
- 20050331X00386
- Case number
- DFW05CA087
- 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: 862a42600c24db24fe06004edc25065524499e1609958b2a0b033cd525d88af4; retrieved 2026-09-22T06:12:19.966Z.