ERA11FA078 · Cessna U206G
Cessna U206G · Accident: loss of engine power (total) en route
From Dillant Hopkins Airport (EEN) to Long Island MacArthur Airport (ISP)
Event
- NTSB case
- ERA11FA078
- 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 U206G
- 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
- N9742Z
- Operator
- Unknown
- Onboard fatalities
- Unknown
- Route
- From Dillant Hopkins Airport (EEN), Keene, NHTo Long Island MacArthur Airport (ISP), Islip, NY
- 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
- 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
- Loss of engine power (total)
- 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
- Wire
- 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 power plant
- Personnel issues › Action/decision
Approximate · Coordinates as recorded by the NTSB; no uncertainty radius is established.
NTSB narrative
The airplane was in cruise flight at 3,000 feet above ground level when the engine developed vibrations and, shortly after, lost total power. The pilot conducted a forced landing in an open field. The pilot cleared the trees adjacent to the field but did not see the electrical wires on the other side. The airplane’s main landing gear contacted the wires, and the airplane flipped and impacted the ground inverted. Examination of the engine revealed that several incorrect nuts for the cylinder hold-down studs were installed, and the breakaway torque values measured for the cylinder hold-down nuts were consistent with improper torque having been applied. Metallurgical examination revealed that the engine’s crankshaft fractured due to fatigue cracks that developed as a result of the No. 2 main bearing shifting in the crankcase saddle. The through-bolts that clamp the No. 2 crankcase saddle faces are secured with the hold-down nuts for the Nos. 2 and 3 cylinders. The engine had a reported total time in service of 6,629 hours with 1,475 hours since major overhaul. All six cylinders had been replaced since the overhaul, with the Nos. 2 and 3 cylinders having been replaced 692 and 549 hours before the accident, respectively.
Probable cause
A total loss of engine power due to the fatigue failure of the crankshaft, which resulted from improper tightening of the cylinder hold-down nuts.
Verbatim NTSB analysis and probable cause from the NTSB dataset
Sources
NTSB record ERA11FA078
- Event ID
- 20101205X84429
- Case number
- ERA11FA078
- 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: 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: dfa664f866ba7f0809777313aac515f6e31634b3ac401725c13efa0145db11b0; retrieved 2026-09-13T21:10:14.129Z.