ANC19CA003 · Cessna 207 A
Cessna 207 A · Accident: loss of engine power (total) on approach
From Nikolai Creek Airport (9AK3) to Merrill Field (MRI)
Event
- NTSB case
- ANC19CA003
- 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 207 A
- Aircraft type
- Cessna 207
- 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
- N6492H
- Operator
- Unknown
- Onboard fatalities
- Unknown
- Route
- From Nikolai Creek Airport (9AK3), Tyonek, AKTo Merrill Field (MRI), Anchorage, AK
- Aircraft age
- About 39 years (built 1979)
- 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 · VFR pattern final
- 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
- 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
- Environmental issues › Physical environment
- Personnel issues › Action/decision
- Personnel issues › Psychological
- 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 on a visual approach at 700 ft, the airplane lost all engine power. The pilot immediately recognized that the selected fuel tank was empty because she had forgotten to switch fuel tanks during the flight. She attempted to restore engine power by selecting the other fuel tank, which did have fuel remaining, and activating the auxiliary fuel pump. Partial engine power was restored, and the pilot decided to land at a nearby private airstrip. During the approach, the right wing struck a tree. The pilot continued the landing, and during the landing roll, the nosewheel contacted soft gravel, and the nose landing gear collapsed.
The airplane sustained substantial damage to the right wing and fuselage.
The pilot reported that there were no preaccident mechanical failures or malfunctions with the airplane that would have precluded normal operation.
Probable cause
The pilot's inadequate in-flight fuel management, which resulted in fuel starvation and the subsequent loss of engine power, and her subsequent failure to maintain clearance from trees during the approach to land at a nearby airstrip.
Verbatim NTSB analysis and probable cause from the NTSB dataset
Sources
NTSB record ANC19CA003
- Event ID
- 20181012X32346
- Case number
- ANC19CA003
- 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: ab8d206ef2c2d9be6396614ee778a9f7c347db187a6171a0db5c357d46a9209f; retrieved 2026-09-16T08:20:06.451Z.