GAA19CA372 · Cessna T206 H
Tulare County Sheriff Cessna T206 H · Accident while maneuvering
From Porterville Municipal Airport (PTV) to Porterville Municipal Airport (PTV)
Event
- NTSB case
- GAA19CA372
- 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
- Government
- 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 T206 H
- 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
- N189JC
- Operator
- Tulare County Sheriff
- Onboard fatalities
- Unknown
- Route
- From Porterville Municipal Airport (PTV), Porterville, CATo Porterville Municipal Airport (PTV), Porterville, CA
- Aircraft age
- About 2 years (built 2017)
- 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
- Public Aircraft
- 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
- Maneuvering
- 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
- Miscellaneous/other
- 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 structures
- Personnel issues › Task performance
Approximate · Coordinates as recorded by the NTSB; no uncertainty radius is established.
NTSB narrative
The pilot reported that, during the preflight inspection and after a passenger had entered the airplane, he ensured that the rear cargo portion of the right cabin door, which also had a forward passenger portion adjacent to the second row of passenger seats, was secure. After completing the preflight inspection, the pilot entered the airplane and saw the passenger close and latch the forward portion of the right door. He then saw the passenger, who was seated in the right, rear passenger seat, struggling with the seatbelt, which passed between the seat and the right cargo door. The pilot suggested that the passenger switch seats, and the passenger moved to the left, rear passenger seat and fastened his seatbelt.
The pilot reported that, during the flight, while maneuvering and descending to 1,600 ft mean sea level, he banked left and then heard a "brief whistle," followed by a "loud boom." He looked behind him and saw that both portions of the right cabin door were open. He returned to the departure airport without further incident.
The airplane sustained substantial damage to the fuselage.
Postaccident examination of the airplane revealed red paint transfer marks on the forward portion of the door from the rear portion door latch, and both door sections could be opened if the latch for the rear door was open. The pilot reported that he believed that the right, rear passenger seatbelt "must have pulled on the [rear] door latch enough to dislodge it." He added that the red paint transfer mark was not there before the flight.
The pilot provided a postaccident examination video, which showed that he was able to use the larger airbag section of the seatbelt to wedge open the rear cargo door latch.
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 failure to verify that the rear cargo portion of the right cabin door was adequately secured before flight, which resulted in both portions of the door opening in flight and substantial damage to the fuselage.
Verbatim NTSB analysis and probable cause from the NTSB dataset
Sources
NTSB record GAA19CA372
- Event ID
- 20190507X80802
- Case number
- GAA19CA372
- 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: 806731530a091d93c45d203da0a455f08453bc1c4c381968984e29f21e0fe5a1; retrieved 2026-09-16T08:57:27.659Z.