ANC06LA079 · Rockwell 112TCA
Rockwell 112TCA · Accident: partial loss of engine power (non-mechanical) en route
From Sarasota Bradenton International Airport (KSRQ) to Venice Municipal Airport (KVNC)
Event
- NTSB case
- ANC06LA079
- 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
Rockwell 112TCA
- Aircraft type
- Rockwell 112
- 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
- N1052D
- Operator
- Unknown
- Onboard fatalities
- Unknown
- Route
- From Sarasota Bradenton International Airport (KSRQ), Sarasota, FLTo Venice Municipal Airport (KVNC), Venice, FL
- 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 · cruise
- 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)
- 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 contamination
- 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 preflight, inadequate
Approximate · Coordinates from the NTSB case API, which marks them as estimated or does not say; no uncertainty radius is established.
NTSB narrative
The private certificated pilot reported that he preflighted his airplane, and sumped the fuel tanks in preparation for the Title 14, CFR Part 91 flight. He said he found some debris, but continued to sump the tanks until he obtained clean fuel. He looked in the fuel tanks, confirmed the presence of fuel, and rocked the wings and heard a sloshing sound from each tank. The pilot reported that the fuel totalizer indicated 10 gallons of fuel in the tanks. After takeoff, he made a left turn, and the engine began to run rough. He requested a return to the departure airport, stating that he had a fuel problem. He was unable to reach the airport, and ditched the airplane with the landing gear up, about 50 yards from shore. The pilot said that the engine continued to run roughly during the emergency descent, and was running upon contact with the water. He indicated that he believed the cause of accident was debris in the fuel tank, picked up during the turn. He also said that it was "entirely possible that this circumstance could have been avoided if there was a greater quantity of fuel in the tank." After the airplane was recovered, an FAA inspector examined the airplane and found a small amount of fuel that sloshed at the bottom of the tanks. He pulled the fuel sump drain, but no fuel discharge was observed. The inspector indicated that his review of air traffic control tapes revealed that the pilot requested to land due to fuel starvation. The inspector also reported that in his conversations with the pilot, the pilot told him that the estimate of fuel in the tanks was based on the fuel totalizer indication. The pilot did not attempt to measure the fuel, but opened the fuel caps to see some fuel sloshing in the tanks.
Probable cause
The pilot's inadequate preflight inspection of the fuel system, which resulted in a partial loss of engine power during cruise flight, and a subsequent ditching. Factors contributing to the accident were a low fuel level at departure, and fuel contamination.
Verbatim NTSB analysis and probable cause from the NTSB dataset
Sources
NTSB record ANC06LA079
- Event ID
- 20060705X00872
- Case number
- ANC06LA079
- 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: 8d6f5f89bb0af2b70052c2bc483e23fb2a5a2fb0829d9dc32f96bfe7d4e89a9d; retrieved 2026-09-21T18:44:38.113Z.