CEN20LA186 · Cessna T206 H
Cessna T206 H · Accident: loss of control in flight on approach
From Gainesville Municipal Airport (GLE) to Center Municipal Airport (F17)
Event
- NTSB case
- CEN20LA186
- 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
- 2 · 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 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
- N51610
- Operator
- Unknown
- Onboard fatalities
- Unknown
- Route
- From Gainesville Municipal Airport (GLE), Gainesville, TXTo Center Municipal Airport (F17), Center, TX
- Aircraft age
- About 19 years (built 2001)
- 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
- 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 in flight
- 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
Approximate · Coordinates from the NTSB case API, which marks them as estimated or does not say; no uncertainty radius is established.
NTSB narrative
The non-instrument rated pilot and passenger were returning to their home airport. Due to localized weather, instrument meteorological conditions prevailed over and in the vicinity of the airport.
Automatic Dependent Surveillance - Broadcast (ADS-B) data recorded the airplane maneuver around the airport multiple times including one approach to the runway. During the airplane’s last approach toward the runway, the airplane made a 180° right turn about 1/4 mile southeast of the runway and then descend. The last ADS-B point recorded the airplane in a right descending turn, about 1,000 ft agl. Witnesses on the ground saw the airplane in a vertical nose-low attitude with a loud engine noise, as the airplane descended and impacted the ground.
A review of weather information found an overcast ceiling about 1,500 ft agl with cloud tops near 3,500 ft mean sea level (msl) and the potential for moderate turbulence below 3,000 ft msl. There was no evidence that the pilot received a weather briefing before the flight. The airport was closed 44 days before the accident and a Notice to Airman was published and available. In addition, the automated weather reporting facility was turned off and not broadcasting weather information. Investigators did not determine if the pilot was aware that the airport was closed.
The airplane’s impact drove the airplane deep into the ground. Due to impact damage and distortion, a detailed examination of the wreckage could not be accomplished. Of the portions examined, no anomalies were detected with the airframe and engine which would have precluded normal operation of the airplane.
Toxicology detected the diphenhydramine, ethanol, and n-propanol in putrefied samples. The diphenhydramine level was below the therapeutic range and likely did not contribute to the accident. Ethanol and n-propanol were likely produced postmortem.
The circumstances of the accident are consistent with the non-instrument rated pilot’s intentional flight into instrument meteorological conditions (clouds) which resulted in spatial disorientation and an inflight loss of control.
Probable cause
The non-instrument rated pilot’s intentional flight into instrument meteorological conditions (clouds) which resulted in spatial disorientation and an inflight loss of control.
Verbatim NTSB analysis and probable cause from the NTSB dataset
Sources
NTSB record CEN20LA186
- Event ID
- 20200520X84956
- Case number
- CEN20LA186
- 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, cause areas. 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: ce3d5eb363f22cf86ee869d13f8e451ec55d1f39f94fcb3e17f0217b9d5d9f33; retrieved 2026-09-15T07:14:56.144Z.