As the pilot leveled the Cessna 206 at 2,500 feet mean sea level during the descent for landing, he advanced the throttle but observed no response from the engine.
He could not restore engine power, however the propeller continued to spin.
He noted that the throttle “felt very loose” when he attempted to add power.
The airplane was unable to maintain altitude, so he performed a forced landing in a field near Wiggins, Miss..
The airplane collided with trees before coming to rest in the field, which resulted in structural damage to the airframe and minor injuries to the three occupants.
During a post-accident examination of the airframe and engine, the portion of the engine throttle cable that was normally clamped just forward of the upper right engine firewall was found forward of and unclamped from its clamping device.
It is likely that the throttle cable became unsecured during the flight and led to the lack of throttle response reported by the pilot.
The NTSB determined the probable cause as a loosening of the engine throttle cable from its support clamp during flight, which resulted in a loss of throttle control.
NTSB Identification: ERA14LA389
This August 2014 accident report is provided by the National Transportation Safety Board. Published as an educational tool, it is intended to help pilots learn from the misfortunes of others.
I saw a similar problem when the pilot was able to make a safe landing on an airport. The older Cessna 210 had just come out of maintenance. At altitude he engine went to idle, the throttle was unresponsive. Upon landing, we found the spiral outer covering had been cut by the generator pulley. The inner cable was still connected to the carburetor. The men in that airplane were lucky that day. They were IFR enroute from Boston to Annapolis Md. when the problem occurred. Atlantic City approach vectored the pilot to N81, ACY app. Called the airport to have emergency vehicles standing by as they did not think the airplane would make the airport. The airplane appeared out of a 500′ overcast and touched down about 10′ short of the threshold . No damage to the airplane or occupants.
Piss poor A&P Mechanic went to lunch forgot to tighten clamps when he returned.Should have tightened clamp then go to lunch.
THROTTLE CABLE PROBLEM.
USUAL LACK OF INFO REPORT! WHY DID IT LOOSEN, OLD NEVER REPLACED CABLE CLAMP, WORN CABLE, WHAT??? HELP US TO LEARN SOMTHING BESIDES WE ARE NOW GOING TO HAVE TO LAND IN SOMTHIG, READY OR NOT!
You make a good point. Digging a little deeper we find an interesting note in the NTSB documentation: The NTSB Memorandum for the Record located in the NTSB Docket for this accident says all that needs said: “The NTSB investigator has not received aircraft or engine logbooks.” I’m a bit suspicious about this. Want to bet this aircraft was out of annual (maybe by a lot more than one Annual cycle)? IMHO, lack of maintenance is just as bad, maybe worse, than poor maintenance. Absent logs which were requested, but not delivered to accident investigators there’s strong circumstantial evidence that owner/operator fault is more likely than maintenance tech error. 🙁