Red Eagle Aviation Cessna TU206F accident
Cessna TU206F · Accident: loss of control on ground during landing
From Kalispell City Airport (S27) to Schafer USFS Airport (8U2)
Event
- NTSB case
- WPR15LA198
- 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
- Charter & commuter
- 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 TU206F
- 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
- N8424Q
- Operator
- Red Eagle Aviation
- Onboard fatalities
- Unknown
- Route
- From Kalispell City Airport (S27), Kalispell, MTTo Schafer USFS Airport (8U2), Schafers Meadows, MT
- Aircraft age
- About 39 years (built 1976)
- 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 135: Air Taxi & Commuter
- 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
- 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
- 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
- Environmental issues › Conditions/weather/phenomena
- Personnel issues › Task performance
Approximate · Coordinates as recorded by the NTSB; no uncertainty radius is established.
NTSB narrative
The airline transport pilot was transporting two passengers to a river for a float trip. The pilot reported that, during the approach, the airport's windsock indicated variable wind from the west, with the wind shifting directions, and that gusts filled the wind sock. During the final approach, the airplane experienced an extreme downdraft and touched down about midfield. The airplane began rolling down the runway, and the wind shifted. The airplane then lifted off the runway with a left yaw. The airplane settled back onto the runway, and the pilot attempted to stop the airplane; however, it exited the end of the runway and came to rest in trees. Postaccident examination of the engine and airframe revealed no anomalies that would have precluded normal operation.
A weather study revealed that, about the time of the accident, wind was about 10 knots gusting up to 20 knots and that the wind direction was shifting. The cumulus clouds around the mountains and accident site likely increased the effects of the gusting wind conditions. The variable and gusting wind conditions likely contributed to the pilot's inability to maintain directional control of the airplane.
Probable cause
The pilot's failure to maintain directional control of the airplane during the landing roll in variable and gusting wind conditions.
Verbatim NTSB analysis and probable cause from the NTSB dataset
Sources
NTSB record WPR15LA198
- Event ID
- 20150623X74917
- Case number
- WPR15LA198
- 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: 899ab153e55e75adf229eb94c3fd32998fc32cdbb33b05953932f5ba8cdfb1dd; retrieved 2026-09-16T02:27:09.163Z.