CEN11CA408 · Cessna TU206G
Cooper Aerial Photo Cessna TU206G · Accident: loss of control on ground during takeoff
From TNC · Truth or Consequences, NM to Phoenix, AZ
Narrative check · The NTSB narrative appears to contradict this record's departure or destination. Values are shown as recorded, not corrected; compare with the narrative.
Event
- NTSB case
- CEN11CA408
- 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
- N735JY
- Operator
- Cooper Aerial Photo
- Onboard fatalities
- Unknown
- Route Narrative disagrees
- From TNC · Truth or Consequences, NMTo Phoenix, AZ
- 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
- Takeoff
- 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 control on ground
- 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
- Environmental issues › Conditions/weather/phenomena
Approximate · Coordinates from the NTSB case API, which marks them as estimated or does not say; no uncertainty radius is established.
NTSB narrative
The pilot and his passenger had just completed a photo mission and returned to a local airport to refuel before departing back to their home airport located in another state. While preparing for the return flight, the pilot noted the wind was increasing, but the visibility was 20 miles and the sky was clear. The pilot taxied to the runway and took off. He said that he rotated at 60 knots and as soon as the airplane became airborne, a large dust devil exploded across the runway and enveloped the airplane. He was unable to see due to the dust and the airplane yawed to the left approximately 150 degrees, was forced to the right side of the runway, and back onto the ground. The airplane landed on the main gear with the engine still at full power. The pilot immediately reduced engine power and applied the brakes. The airplane skidded across a taxiway and collided with a runway sign resulting in substantial damage to the fuselage and horizontal stabilizer. The pilot reported that he had five seconds to react to the situation and there were no mechanical deficiencies with the airplane. A review of the automated weather reports at the airport at the time of the accident, did not report any dust-devil activity.
Probable cause
The pilot's inability to control the airplane on take off.
Verbatim NTSB analysis and probable cause from the NTSB dataset
Sources
NTSB record CEN11CA408
- Event ID
- 20110621X23049
- Case number
- CEN11CA408
- 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, 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: 59b4e4f503ddcf957b0423327aa10492f07d29eecf00106fe6d4ff4aefc6d065; retrieved 2026-09-15T16:19:18.024Z.