Air Couriers Cessna T210M accident
Cessna T210M · Accident: total loss of engine power (non-mechanical) on approach
From Des Moines International Airport (DSM) to an unrecorded destination
Event
- NTSB case
- CHI94LA073
- 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
- Charter & commuter
- WeatherVisual meteorological conditions (VMC): good enough to fly by looking outside. Instrument conditions (IMC): cloud or low visibility, flying by instruments. Glossary
- Instrument Meteorological Cond
Cessna T210M
- 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
- N1215M
- Operator
- Air Couriers
- Onboard fatalities
- Unknown
- Route
- From Des Moines International Airport (DSM), Des Moines, IATo not recorded
- 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 135: Air Taxi & Commuter
- 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 · IFR final approach
- 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
- Total 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
- Fuel starvation
- 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
- Pilot in command › Fuel tank selector position, improper
- Pilot in command › Procedures/directives, not followed
Approximate · Coordinates as recorded by the NTSB; no uncertainty radius is established.
NTSB narrative
THE AIRPLANE CRASHED SHORT OF THE RUNWAY DURING AN INSTRUMENT APPROACH. THE PILOT REPORTED A LOSS OF ENGINE POWER ABOUT 1/4 OF A MILE FROM THE RUNWAY THRESHOLD. HIS INITIAL ATTEMPT AT REGAINING POWER WAS SUCCESSFUL, AND THE ENGINE RAN FOR A FEW SECONDS AND THEN QUIT. THE PILOT SAID THE AIRPLANE WAS TOO LOW TO ATTEMPT A RESTART AND THE AIRPLANE LANDED HARD. POSTACCIDENT INSPECTION DISCOVERED NO MECHANICAL ANOMAlIES WITH THE ENGINE OR AIRFRAME. THE AIRPLANE'S PILOT OPERATING HANDBOOK REQUIRES THAT THE FULLEST TANK BE SELECTED FOR TAKEOFF AND LANDING, AND NOTES THAT SLIPS AND SKIDS SHOULD BE AVOIDED WITH LESS THAN 1/4 OF A TANK OF FUEL DUE TO THE POTENTIAL FOR UNPORTING OF THE FUEL PICKUP AND THE SUBSEQUENT LOSS OF ENGINE POWER. THE ACCIDENT AIRPLANE'S RIGHT FUEL TANK WAS APPROXIMATELY 1/2 FULL; THE LEFT FUEL TANK CONTAINED ABOUT 3 GALLONS OF GAS. THE FUEL TANK SELECTOR IN THE COCKPIT WAS FOUND SELECTED TO THE LEFT TANK.
Probable cause
the pilot's failure to follow procedures and directives regarding the positioning of the fuel tank selector to the fullest tank for the landing portion of flight.
Verbatim NTSB analysis and probable cause from the NTSB dataset
Sources
NTSB record CHI94LA073
- Event ID
- 20001206X00611
- Case number
- CHI94LA073
- Dataset
- historical-pre2008
- Source SHA-256
- 89e2df6d848e7ab3b42e7d7c7a03ff403303057a26ca04c95b3ea67201c3ce74
Source notes (5)
- 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: 9d4231ad91fc57c9139bb783b044d60008209ce98f397fda45dc9f81bd988c86; retrieved 2026-09-18T18:23:23.336Z.
- The NTSB's operator name is blank for N1215M; the operator shown is the name the NTSB records it doing business as.