- Date
- December 27, 1988, 19:13 local (Dec 28, 1988, 01:13 UTC)
- Place
- Alamo, TX
- Injuries
- 1 serious
- Damage
- Destroyed
- Phase of flight
- Enroute
- Aircraft
- N72249Cessna TU206D
- Weather
- Visual (VMC) · Night/dark
- Status
- Completed · report January 16, 1990
- Report
- Approved by Office Director
- FAA report
- 19881227056869A
- Case key
- 22823
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
Airplane's collision with trees and terrain during an attempted forced landing at night following an engine faiure. The engine failure was caused by fuel starvation as a result of a faulty fuel system which the operator had failed to correct.
Sequence of events
NTSB’s coding before 2008: each occurrence and phase of flight, and the causes and factors under it. The codes are defined in NTSB’s coding manual.
Analysis
Shortly after entering U.S. Air space, the plt (a mexican national) canceled his dvfr flt plan. About 9 min later, he declared an emergency & said the eng had lost power. During an emergency landing at night, the acft hit trees & crashed. According to an FAA form 337, aux fuel tanks had been installed iaw STC SA2479WE. However, the installation was not documented in the log books; the wt & balance info was not revised & the fuel selector & gauges were not placarded to reflect the increased capacity. The plt rprtd he was changing fuel tanks when the eng developed a 'vapor lock' & would not restart. He stated the 'vapor lock' problem had occurred on previous flts, but he had always been successful in restarting the eng. Additionally, he said the problem had not manifested itself prior to installation of the aux tanks. An exam of the tanks revealed no boost pumps or transfer pumps were installed. Aprx 12.5 gal of fuel was drained from the acft; unusable fuel was 7 gal. The fuel selector was found between the left tank & off positions.
Aircraft
- Registration
- N72249
- Reported as
- Cessna TU206D
- Category
- Airplane
- Serial number
- U206-1331
- Airframe hours
- 7,656
- Engine
- Continental TSIO-520-M, 310 horsepower, reciprocating
- Damage
- Destroyed
- Flight
- Business · Part 91
- Operator
- Gonzalez, Jose J.
- Registered owner
- Gonzalez, Jose J
- Airworthiness certificate
- Standard, Normal; Standard, Utility
- Last inspection
- Annual · March 18, 1988 · 44 hours before
- Departed
- MTMX · Tampico
- Destination
- MFE · Mcallen, TX
- Flight plan
- VFR
Matched to the registry by N-number and the event date; the registry’s history has gaps, so older matches can be wrong. Compare the reported make and model.
Flight crew
As NTSB recorded them. NTSB leaves out names.
- Role
- Pilot
- Certificate
- Foreign
- Medical
- Unknown, Unknown
- Seat
- Left
Weather
- Conditions
- Visual (VMC) · Night/dark
- Wind
- 310° at 18 knots
- Visibility
- 7 statute miles
- Lowest ceiling
- 3,000 ft broken
- Temperature
- 77 °F, dew point 55 °F
- Altimeter
- 29.00 inHg
- Observed at
- MFE, 8 nm away
FAA reports on this event · 1
The FAA’s own accident and incident reports, matched to the aircraft by N-number and date.