ANC12FA073 · Cessna U206G
Cessna U206G · Accident: abnormal runway contact during landing
From Kenai Municipal Airport (PAEN) to Homer-Beluga Lake Seaplane Base (5BL)
Event
- NTSB case
- ANC12FA073
- 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
- 1 · 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
- N206VR
- Operator
- Unknown
- Onboard fatalities
- Unknown
- Route
- From Kenai Municipal Airport (PAEN), Kenai, AKTo Homer-Beluga Lake Seaplane Base (5BL), Homer, AK
- 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
- Landing · flare/touchdown
- 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
- Abnormal runway contact
- 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
- Personnel issues › Action/decision
- Personnel issues › Task performance
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 reported that while landing in a southerly direction on a lake, a gust of wind lifted the left wing just after touchdown, and the right wing struck the water. The airplane nosed over abruptly, and the cabin immediately filled with water. The pilot estimated the wind to be from 130 degrees at 10 knots, with peak gusts between 12 to 14 knots. However, a pilot-rated witness who observed the accident from the southeastern shoreline of the lake reported that the wind was strong and gusty out of the northeast at 20 to 25 knots at the time. He thought the accident airplane was on a downwind leg, but it was on final approach. He said that the airplane had a very fast ground speed and touched down slightly nose down in a left-float-low attitude. The nose of the left float dug into the water, the left wing struck the water, and the airplane rapidly nosed over.
A postaccident examination revealed no evidence of a mechanical malfunction or failure with the airframe or engine that would have precluded normal operation. Based on the pilot-rated witness’s statement and the damage to the airplane and its floats, it is likely that the pilot misjudged the wind conditions and landed with a strong, gusty tailwind. The airplane then contacted the rough water with the left float low and nosed over.
On this airplane, the right rear cargo door is blocked by the wing flap when it is extended. After the accident, the pilot and three of the passengers were able to egress the airplane by bending that door and sliding through the small opening that they created. The fourth passenger was unable to exit through the door; however, due to the nature of her injuries, it is unlikely that the blocked exit contributed to her death.
Probable cause
The pilot’s improper evaluation of the weather conditions and his subsequent downwind water landing in gusting wind conditions, which resulted in a nose-over.
Verbatim NTSB analysis and probable cause from the NTSB dataset
Sources
NTSB record ANC12FA073
- Event ID
- 20120711X13330
- Case number
- ANC12FA073
- 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, coordinates. Values present in the bulk record are kept.
- The date is the local date; the NTSB stores the UTC date 2012-07-11.
- API snapshot SHA-256: 9c061b72347bce5c1ca3cb3c57841942faa6b888fdc2ed4b5db18c433bbf6896; retrieved 2026-09-13T22:28:47.777Z.