- Date
- July 21, 2025, 10:30 local (14:30 UTC)
- Place
- Versailles, KY
- Injuries
- 2 uninjured
- Damage
- Substantial damage
- Phase of flight
- Enroute
- Aircraft
- N8670ZCessna TP206C
- Defining event
- Enroute-cruise: Fuel starvation
- Weather
- Instrument (IMC) · Day
- Status
- Completed · report November 20, 2025
- Report
- Approved by Office Director
- Investigation class
- Class 4 - Basic report with no Prelim publish
- NTSB office
- Eastern Region Aviation
- Parties
- FAA/FSDO
- FAA report
- 20250721015079A
- Case key
- 200592
From the NTSB’s public API. By law, NTSB reports can’t be used as evidence in lawsuits over the accident.
On this page
Probable cause
The pilot’s mismanagement of the airplane’s available fuel supply, which resulted in fuel starvation and a subsequent total loss of engine power.
Findings · 2
NTSB’s coded findings. Those marked are part of the probable cause; the rest are factors or other findings. Under each, the cases with the same finding.
Sequence of events
The events NTSB coded, in order, by phase of flight. The defining event is the one that best describes the accident. Under each, the cases with the same event anywhere in their sequence.
Analysis
The pilot was on a multi-stop cross country flight, and after fueling the airplane, had departed for the next leg of the trip. While in cruise flight at an altitude of 11,500 ft msl, the pilot felt an engine vibration, and despite activating the alternate air, the vibration did not improve. He requested radar vectors from air traffic control to a nearby airport, and while descending through 3,500 ft, the engine lost power completely. The pilot then switched from the right to the left fuel tank, activated the fuel boost pump, and unsuccessfully attempted to restart the engine. He subsequently performed a forced landing to a field, during which the airplane’s horizontal stabilizer was substantially damaged. Following the accident, the pilot realized that the quantity of fuel available in the left tank was less than that tank’s unusable amount. With the right fuel tank selected, the engine was started and run with no anomalies noted. Based on this information, the loss of engine power that occurred during the accident flight was most likely the result of fuel starvation.
Aircraft
- Registration
- N8670Z
- Reported as
- Cessna TP206C
- Category
- Airplane
- Serial number
- P206-0470
- Built
- 1968
- Airframe hours
- 4,959
- Engine
- Continental TSIO520C3P, 285 horsepower, reciprocating
- Damage
- Substantial damage
- Flight
- Personal · Part 91
- Airworthiness certificate
- Standard, Normal
- Last inspection
- Annual · October 17, 2024 · 26 hours before
- Departed
- ZEF · Elkin, NC
- Destination
- RZL · Rensselaer, IN
- Equipment
- ADS-B, Auto-pilot, Handheld GPS, Stall warning system
Flight crew
As NTSB recorded them. NTSB leaves out names.
- Role
- Pilot
- Age
- 80
- Injuries
- None
- Certificate
- Private
- Airplane ratings
- Single-engine land
- Medical
- Class 3, Without waivers/limitations
- Last flight review
- June 1, 2024
- Seat
- Left
- Restraint
- 3-point
- Flight hours
- 2,085 total · 1,570 in this make and model · 2,085 as pilot in command
Weather
- Conditions
- Instrument (IMC) · Day
- Visibility
- 10 statute miles
- Lowest ceiling
- 3,200 ft broken
- Temperature
- 79 °F, dew point 72 °F
- Altimeter
- 30.04 inHg
- Observed at
- KLEX, 5 nm away
- METAR
- KLEX 211442Z VRB03KT 10SM FEW013 BKN032 BKN065 26/22 A3004 RMK AO2 T02560222
Docket · 2
The files NTSB released with the investigation on November 20, 2025, on NTSB’s docket system: statements, records, photos and specialists’ reports. 3.6 MB in all.
FAA reports on this event · 1
The FAA’s own accident and incident reports, matched to the aircraft by N-number and date.