WPR09FA027 · Cessna P206
Cessna P206 · Accident: collision during takeoff/landing on approach
From Lexington Airport (9S9) to Valley View Airport (5S9)
Event
- NTSB case
- WPR09FA027
- 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
- 2 · 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 P206
- 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
- N2570X
- Operator
- Mark S Greenup · private individual
- Onboard fatalities
- Unknown
- Route
- From Lexington Airport (9S9), Lexington, ORTo Valley View Airport (5S9), Estacada, OR
- 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
- Defining eventThe 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
- Collision during takeoff/landing
- 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
- Aircraft › Aircraft oper/perf/capability
- Personnel issues › Task performance
Approximate · Coordinates as recorded by the NTSB; no uncertainty radius is established.
NTSB narrative
During a night visual-flight-rules personal flight, the pilot reported to a witness via cellular phone that the airplane's electrical system had failed and requested that the witness turn on the runway lights. The witness stated that he observed the airplane flying over the airport on a westerly heading with no lights on. As the airplane passed over the runway and initiated a left turn, the witness lost visual contact with the airplane. Shortly thereafter, the witness heard the sound of impact. On-scene examination of the wreckage and ground scars showed that the airplane impacted trees on final approach about 1,000 feet short of the runway's approach end. Detailed examination of the recovered wreckage revealed that the top ground terminal nut that attached the alternator filter to the ground terminal of the alternator was loose. Evidence of severe wear was noted on the alternator filter attach point and the bottom alternator ground terminal nut. Copper particle splatter was observed around the ground terminal and on the alternator filter which was found to be consistent with electrical arcing. The alternator controller remained attached to the firewall. The tamper-proof seal on the controller was found separated at the seam. The controller cover was removed and a diode was observed separated from the circuit board and found loose within the cover. Evidence of heat damage was observed within the lower inboard corner of the printed circuit board where the diode was installed. No additional anomalies were noted with the engine that would have precluded normal operation and production of power. The pilot had undergone a minor surgical procedure two weeks prior to the accident, and was prescribed a medication known to cause impairment. Toxicology testing was consistent with the medication having been taken within 24 hours of the accident; however, the investigation could not definitively establish that the pilot was impaired.
Probable cause
The pilot's failure to maintain clearance from trees while on approach to land at night. Contributing to the accident was the electrical system failure and the pilot's diverted attention.
Verbatim NTSB analysis and probable cause from the NTSB dataset
Sources
NTSB record WPR09FA027
- Event ID
- 20081029X01756
- Case number
- WPR09FA027
- Dataset
- full-current
- Source SHA-256
- 5cf380f0061817c0331a6b2d8cc7e0ee3a79bea469a1001dc5c10e56f35f5ab3
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: local date, investigation status. Values present in the bulk record are kept.
- The date is the local date; the NTSB stores the UTC date 2008-10-29.
- API snapshot SHA-256: 6e63387d59cea5c1d95edd6c6788e6799ee5c442546fde0d91da0aa23fe83487; retrieved 2026-09-13T19:47:46.284Z.