SEA99LA044 · Cessna T210L
Cessna T210L · Accident: loss of engine power on approach
From King County International Airport - Boeing Field (BFI) to William R Fairchild International Airport (CLM)
Event
- NTSB case
- SEA99LA044
- Event typeAccident: someone killed or seriously injured, or the aircraft substantially damaged (NTSB definition). Incident: an occurrence that affected or could have affected safety, short of that. Glossary
- Accident
- InvestigationHow far the investigation had got when the record was published: preliminary, ongoing, final or completed. Unknown where the source does not say. Glossary
- Completed
- API-reported fatalities
- 0 · all aircraft and ground
- Ground fatalities
- 0
- OperationWhat kind of flying it was, grouped by the rules it flew under: airline (US Part 121), air taxi and commuter (Part 135), general aviation (Part 91 and similar), military or government. Glossary
- General aviation
- WeatherVisual meteorological conditions (VMC): good enough to fly by looking outside. Instrument conditions (IMC): cloud or low visibility, flying by instruments. Glossary
- Visual Meteorological Cond
Cessna T210L
- Aircraft type
- Cessna 210
- Category
- Airplane
- RegistrationThe aircraft's tail number, such as N12345 or G-ABCD. Registrations are reissued, so the same one years apart can be a different aircraft. Glossary
- N93377
- Operator
- Wings Aloft
- Onboard fatalities
- Unknown
- Route
- From King County International Airport - Boeing Field (BFI), Seattle, WATo William R Fairchild International Airport (CLM)
- Aircraft age
- Not recorded
- Flight rulesThe regulations the flight operated under: in the US, Part 91 (general aviation), Part 121 (airlines), Part 135 (air taxi and commuter) and others; for flights abroad, the NTSB's coarser commercial or non-commercial code. Glossary
- Part 91: General Aviation
- Phase of flightThe stage of the flight when things started to go wrong: standing, taxi, takeoff, initial climb, en route, maneuvering, approach or landing. Glossary
- Approach · VFR pattern final
- First occurrenceThe single coded event the NTSB judges best describes what happened (records from 2008 on). Older records name the first occurrence in the sequence instead. Glossary
- Loss of engine power
- Also codedOther events the NTSB coded in the sequence, such as a wire strike after a loss of power. Flight Findings uses them for its kinds of event. Glossary
- Fuel contamination
- DamageDestroyed: beyond practical repair. Substantial: damage that affects the structure, performance or handling and normally needs major repair. Minor: less than that. Glossary
- Substantial
Cause areas
- Fluid, fuel › Contamination, water
- Pilot in command › In-flight planning/decision, improper
Approximate · Coordinates as recorded by the NTSB; no uncertainty radius is established.
NTSB narrative
During the annual inspection, leaking fuel tank caps and a water-contaminated fuel system were discovered. After completion of the annual, to include replacement of the caps and extensive actions to purge the system of any contamination, the pilot was asked to take the airplane on a post-maintenance test flight. During this flight, the pilot, who had been made aware that there had been significant water contamination of the fuel system, was supposed to make sure the aircraft ran properly and that there was nothing wrong with it. The pilot operated the engine prior to takeoff with the left fuel system selected, but did not select the right tank to see if he could detect any residual water contamination in that side of the system. He also did not test the right system while at altitude or when at a location where he could easily reach an airport if the engine lost power. After descending toward his en route destination, the pilot switched to the right fuel system and soon thereafter the engine experienced a complete loss of power. Unable to extend the glide to the airport, the pilot was able to land on a municipal baseball field. Although the touchdown was successful, the pilot was unable to get the airplane stopped prior to impacting the backstop.
Probable cause
The pilot's improper in-flight decision which resulted in a loss of power due to a contaminated fuel system. Factors include unsuitable terrain and the fence.
Verbatim NTSB analysis and probable cause from the NTSB dataset
Sources
NTSB record SEA99LA044
- Event ID
- 20001205X00397
- Case number
- SEA99LA044
- Dataset
- historical-pre2008
- Source SHA-256
- 89e2df6d848e7ab3b42e7d7c7a03ff403303057a26ca04c95b3ea67201c3ce74
Source notes (4)
- Unreviewed is an editorial label, not an investigation status. API-sourced is not report-checked or human-reviewed. Explicit event totals are used without summing aircraft injury tables; onboard allocation is withheld. Unknown values remain unknown. The operation category is mapped from the NTSB-reported FAR part and has not been reviewed.
- Filled from the NTSB case API where the bulk record had no value: investigation status. Values present in the bulk record are kept.
- The date is the local date, which is the same as the UTC date the NTSB stores.
- API snapshot SHA-256: df03cb8c424c98062c09bf1f2b7c90fffb30e1de34a26a70c8599252ffbe4f16; retrieved 2026-09-21T20:34:56.134Z.