ERA26LA153 · Textron Aviation Inc T206H
Textron Aviation Inc T206H · Accident: loss of control in flight during takeoff
From an unrecorded airport to Southwest Florida International Airport (RSW)
Event
- NTSB case
- ERA26LA153
- 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
- Ongoing
- Event fatalities
- Unknown
- 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
Textron Aviation Inc 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
- N2469H
- Operator
- Unknown
- Onboard fatalities
- Unknown
- Route
- From not recordedTo Southwest Florida International Airport (RSW), Fort Myers, FL
- Aircraft age
- About 1 year (built 2025)
- 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
- Takeoff
- 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
No findings designated as a cause are recorded in the NTSB data yet.
Approximate · Coordinates from the NTSB case API, which marks them as estimated or does not say; no uncertainty radius is established.
NTSB narrative
On March 21, 2026, about 0905 eastern daylight time, a Cessna T206H, N2469H, was substantially damaged when it was involved in an accident near Fort Myers, Florida. The pilot and four passengers sustained minor injuries. The airplane was operated as a Title 14 Code of Federal Regulations Part 91 personal flight.
The pilot/owner reported that he purchased the airplane new in November 2025. He returned the airplane to the manufacturer’s factory for inspection and corrective action to the standby battery system, air data/airspeed system, engine monitoring components, and one engine cylinder was replaced due to low compression readings. Following the inspection, repair, and test flights, the airplane was returned to service and the pilot on March 11, 2026.
The pilot operated the airplane uneventfully during the days before the accident, including multiple takeoffs and landings, from both paved and soft-field runways. During the accident takeoff, the airplane was departing from Salty Approach Airport (FL90), Fort Myers, Florida. The pilot was attempting a soft-field takeoff technique on runway 10, a 1,800-ft-long, 100-ft-wide, turf runway. The pilot further reported that the airplane remained on the runway longer than expected, and did not achieve a normal liftoff profile within the anticipated distance. Forward visibility during the takeoff roll was limited, consistent with a soft-field takeoff attitude, and the pilot did not recall all of the instrument indications during the takeoff. As the airplane approached the end of the runway, the pilot attempted to lift off, the airplane became airborne and drifted laterally, impacting terrain and obstacles off the runway environment.
Review of a witness video showed that for most of the takeoff roll, the airplane’s empennage dragged along the surface of the turf runway. The airplane appeared to become airborne, veered right, exited the right side of the runway, and struck trees near the end of the runway. The airplane came to rest upright and sustained substantial damage to both wings and the right horizontal stabilizer.
Verbatim NTSB factual narrative from the NTSB dataset
Sources
NTSB record ERA26LA153
- Event ID
- 20260330202715
- Case number
- ERA26LA153
- 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: 138ae59b8e53d3108d2a4faba00ff9ccf3826c8405fe92d20e95d6c1e2807e8f; retrieved 2026-09-16T21:05:32.325Z.