De Havilland DHC-6 TWIN OTTER N166DH

Summary

On 8 June 2025 at about 17:20 local time, a De Havilland DHC-6 TWIN OTTER registered N166DH was involved in an accident near Tullahoma, Tennessee, United States. 21 people were on board and 6 were seriously injured. The aircraft was substantially damaged. No probable cause has been published yet; this accident is still under investigation.

Date

8 June 2025 at 17:20

Classification

Accident

Location

Tullahoma, Tennessee, United States

Nearest airport

Tullahoma Rgnl/Wm Northern Fld (THA)

Coordinates

35.3801, -86.2468

Aircraft

De Havilland DHC-6 TWIN OTTER

Registration

N166DH

Category

Airplane

Year built

1967

Engines

2

Operator

Not recorded

Operating rule

Part 91: General Aviation

Purpose of flight

Skydiving

Phase of flight

Not recorded

Aircraft damage

Substantial

Weather

VMC

Light

Day

NTSB number

ERA25LA222

6 people were seriously injured.

The NTSB has not published a probable cause for this record. The investigation is still open; a final report usually follows one to two years after the accident.

Nothing about the cause is stated here that is not in the source record.

Read the full NTSB narrative

On June 8, 2025, about 1220 central daylight time, a DeHavilland DHC-6 Twin Otter, N166DH, was involved in an accident near Tullahoma, Tennessee. The commercial pilot and five passengers were seriously injured, and 15 passengers were not injured. The flight was being conducted as a 14 Code of Federal Regulations Part 91 skydiving flight. The pilot was attempting to take off from runway 24 at the Tullahoma Regional Airport (THA), Tullahoma, TN. The accident flight was his fourth flight in the airplane that day. The pilot stated the takeoff was normal and he raised the flaps once the airplane was clear of obstacles. When the airplane was about 500 ft above the ground, the pilot noticed asymmetrical thrust on the engines while syncing the propellers. He said, “In the following seconds, I continued trying to sync the props and was getting unusual feedback in the controls. I didn’t notice any loss of power in the gauges, but something felt a miss.” The pilot lowered the nose of the airplane and saw the altitude level off, and airspeed decrease. The pilot determined that the left engine had lost power. He initiated “engine out procedures” and turned left, back to the airport to try and land on runway 36. The pilot could not remember if he secured the left engine; however, he did remember adding flaps as per the engine-out procedures. The pilot said he tried to maintain airspeed above the single-engine minimum control speed (Vmc), but the airplane continued to descend. The pilot was unable to make it back to the airport and chose to land in a field. There were two trees in the field that he was unable to avoid, and the airplane impacted the trees. The airplane came to rest upright, but the left wing, left engine and the tail section separated from the airframe, resulting in substantial damage. The right wing and engine remained secured to the airframe. There was no postimpact fire. The airplane wreckage was recovered and taken to a secure facility for further examination.

Quoted verbatim from the NTSB record.