- Date
- August 26, 1994, 20:00 local (Aug 27, 1994, 02:00 UTC)
- Place
- Bliss, ID
- Injuries
- 4 uninjured
- Damage
- Substantial damage
- Phase of flight
- Landing
- Aircraft
- N859ACessna 206
- Weather
- Visual (VMC) · Day
- Status
- Completed · report October 13, 1995
- Report
- Approved by Office Director
- FAA report
- 19940826024049A
- Case key
- 42010
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 failure to maintain directional control. Factors include sunglare from the setting sun, and the soft terrain along the side the runway.
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
While landing into the setting sun on a 30 foot wide airstrip, the pilot elected to abort the landing because the sunglare made it hard to see the runway. During the aborted landing the pilot failed to maintain directional control, and the aircraft departed the runway. After exiting the runway, the aircraft nosed over in the soft terrain of an adjacent potato field.
Factual narrative
On August 26, 1994, approximately 2000 mountain daylight time (MDT), a Cessna 206, N859A, nosed over during a VFR go-around at a private airstrip near Bliss, Idaho. The private pilot and his three passengers were not injured, but the aircraft sustained substantial damage. The personal pleasure flight, which departed Smiley Creek Airport, Galena, Idaho, about one-half hour earlier, was in visual meteorological conditions at the time of the accident. No flight plan had been filed, and there was no report of an ELT activation.
According to the pilot, because he was landing almost directly into the setting sun on a 30 foot wide airstrip, he lost sight of the runway during the landing flare. He therefore attempted a go-around while looking into the glare of the setting sun. During the go-around, the aircraft departed the airstrip and nosed over in the soft terrain of a potato field alongside the runway.
Aircraft
- Registration
- N859A
- Reported as
- Cessna 206
- Category
- Airplane
- Serial number
- U20603237
- Airframe hours
- 3,301
- Engine
- Continental IO-520-F, 300 horsepower, reciprocating
- Damage
- Substantial damage
- Flight
- Personal · Part 91
- Registered owner
- Elliott, Jess D.
- Airworthiness certificate
- Standard, Normal
- Last inspection
- Annual · June 15, 1994 · 36 hours before
- Departed
- U87 · Smiley Creek, ID
- Airport
- Private Airstrip, runway 27, 1,600 × 30 ft, dirt
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
- Age
- 52
- Certificate
- Private
- Airplane ratings
- Single-engine land
- Medical
- Class 3, Valid Medical--no waivers/lim.
- Seat
- Left
- Flight hours
- 615 total · 486 in this make and model · 615 as pilot in command · 54 in the last 90 days · 28 in the last 30 days
Weather
- Conditions
- Visual (VMC) · Day
- Wind
- 270° at 3 knots
- Visibility
- 20 statute miles
- Lowest ceiling
- None
- Temperature
- 81 °F
Docket · 2
The files NTSB released with the investigation on March 19, 2022, on NTSB’s docket system: statements, records, photos and specialists’ reports. 515 KB 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.