MIA99FA142 · Cessna 210L
Cessna 210L · Accident: partial loss of engine power (non-mechanical) during initial climb
From Vero Beach Regional Airport (VRB) to Grand Bahama International Airport (MYGF)
Event
- NTSB case
- MIA99FA142
- 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
- 4 · 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 210L
- 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
- N3458H
- Operator
- Unknown
- Onboard fatalities
- Unknown
- Route
- From Vero Beach Regional Airport (VRB)To Grand Bahama International Airport (MYGF), Freeport
- 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
- Initial climb
- 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
- Partial loss of engine power (non-mechanical)
- 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
- Tree(s)
- DamageDestroyed: beyond practical repair. Substantial: damage that affects the structure, performance or handling and normally needs major repair. Minor: less than that. Glossary
- Destroyed
Cause areas
- Other maintenance personnel › Maintenance, inspection, inadequate
- Other maintenance personnel › Maintenance, replacement, inadequate
- Pilot in command › Unsuitable terrain or takeoff/landing/taxi area, encountered
- Throttle/power lever, cable › Disconnected
- Throttle/power lever, cable › Not safetied
Approximate · Coordinates as recorded by the NTSB; no uncertainty radius is established.
NTSB narrative
Shortly after takeoff the airplane collided with trees then the ground while descending for a forced landing over a residential area. After takeoff, the controller questioned the pilot if there were any problems. The pilot responded the engine was not 'getting good power'; the flight was returning to land. Examination of the wreckage revealed the throttle control was not connected to the undamaged throttle control arm which was at the idle position; the attach hardware was not located. The mixture control cable was connected to the control arm which was bent and broken. The propeller governor cable was tightly stretched. The throttle control in the cockpit was extended aft 3 inches, the cockpit mixture and propeller controls were full forward. The engine was started and operated normally. According to a mechanic, the throttle cable was replaced; the final inspection mechanic stated no cotter pin was installed at the throttle control arm in the engine compartment during full travel check of the throttle. He did not re-inspect to confirm installation of a cotter pin. The mechanic who replaced the cable reported installing a corrosion resistant cotter pin after the travel check. The airplane had accumulated 1.6 hours since, including a post inspection 45 minute flight by the pilot, the flight to Vero Beach, and the accident flight.
Probable cause
A loss of engine power due to a disconnected throttle/power lever, cable. Also causal was the failure of the mechanic to install a cotter pin in the throttle control cable attach hardware at the throttle control arm, and failure of the company quality control inspector to verify after the job was completed that a cotter pin was installed, which resulted in disconnection of the throttle control cable from the throttle control arm after takeoff allowing the throttle control to move from the full open position. A related factor was the unsuitable terrain encountered by the pilot during the forced landing.
Verbatim NTSB analysis and probable cause from the NTSB dataset
Sources
NTSB record MIA99FA142
- Event ID
- 20001205X00520
- Case number
- MIA99FA142
- 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: d908140d2f350b6a5a104bd58582dbe7f5704894b273600540575609c4d14922; retrieved 2026-09-20T22:08:37.810Z.