WPR24FA024 · Cessna T206H
Cessna T206H · Accident: controlled flight into terrain/object (CFIT) en route
From Vernal Regional Airport (VEL) to Cedar City Regional Airport (CDC)
Event
- NTSB case
- WPR24FA024
- 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 T206H
- 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
- N915DV
- Operator
- Unknown
- Onboard fatalities
- Unknown
- Route
- From Vernal Regional Airport (VEL), Vernal, UTTo Cedar City Regional Airport (CDC), Cedar CIty, UT
- Aircraft age
- About 18 years (built 2005)
- 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
- En route · cruise
- 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
- Controlled flight into terrain/object (CFIT)
- 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
Approximate · Coordinates from the NTSB case API, which marks them as estimated or does not say; no uncertainty radius is established.
NTSB narrative
After departing, the airplane climbed to about 8,800 ft on a southwest course and remained at that altitude and on that heading until impacting terrain. No meteorological conditions were present that would have affected the pilot’s visibility on the visual flight rules flight.
Although examination of the wreckage did not reveal evidence of pre-impact mechanical malfunctions or failures that would have precluded normal operation, flight control continuity could not be fully confirmed due to extensive impact and fire damage. There was no evidence of an in-flight bird strike. Additionally, due to the extent of the pilot’s injuries, evaluation of his autopsy for evidence of medical factors that may have affected his ability to operate the airplane was limited. The toxicological examination revealed that the pilot had used the medication cetirizine; however, whether the pilot may have been experiencing some associated mild sedation at the time of the accident could not be determined.
Due to the airplane’s extensive impact and fire damage, and the extent of the pilot’s injuries, the reason for the airplane’s controlled flight into terrain could not be determined.
Probable cause
The pilot's controlled flight into mountainous terrain for reasons that could not be determined.
Verbatim NTSB analysis and probable cause from the NTSB dataset
Sources
NTSB record WPR24FA024
- Event ID
- 20231030193322
- Case number
- WPR24FA024
- 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: 9718c257e53ca787171123272d6d2878a39fcad1fd7a3796952063c557394af7; retrieved 2026-09-15T08:07:34.589Z.