FTW94FA273 · Cessna 310
Cessna 310 · Accident: total loss of engine power (mechanical failure) on approach
From El Paso International Airport (ELP) to Mid America Industrial Airport (H71)
Event
- NTSB case
- FTW94FA273
- 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
- 3 · 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 310
- Aircraft type
- Cessna 310
- 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
- N5319A
- Operator
- Unknown
- Onboard fatalities
- Unknown
- Route
- From El Paso International Airport (ELP), El Paso, TXTo Mid America Industrial Airport (H71), Pryor, OK
- 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
- Total loss of engine power (mechanical failure)
- 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
- Pilot in command › Aircraft control, not maintained
- Pilot in command › Airspeed(vmc), not maintained
Approximate · Estimated position: the centre of Pryor, OK, the place the record names. Not the accident site.
NTSB narrative
A LEFT ENGINE OIL LEAK WAS REPORTED PREVIOUSLY. THE SURVIVOR NOTED A REDUCTION OF PRESSURE ON AN OIL GAUGE & THAT THE LEFT PROPELLER HAD STOPPED TURNING BEFORE THE FLIGHT HAD REACHED THE DESTINATION. AN APPROACH WAS MADE TO LAND ON RUNWAY 35. HOWEVER, DURING ARRIVAL, THE AIRPLANE CRASHED ON THE AIRPORT & CAME TO REST 432' WEST OF THE RUNWAY. IMPACT WAS ON A HEADING OF 292 DEGREES. THE RIGHT PROPELLER WAS FOUND TWISTED & BENT; THE LEFT PROPELLER BLADES EXHIBITED LONGITUDINAL & DIAGONAL SCORING. A FATIGUE CRACK & OIL LEAK WERE FOUND IN THE CRANKCASE OF THE LEFT ENGINE. INVESTIGATION REVEALED, THE PILOT HAD FILED A FLIGHT PLAN WITH AN ESTIMATED TIME EN ROUTE (ETE) OF 4 HRS & 15 MIN (4+15) & AN ESTIMATED TIME OF ARRIVAL (ETA) OF 1745 CDT (2245 UTC). THERE WAS EVIDENCE THAT WHEN THE FLIGHT PLAN WAS FORWARDED THROUGH ALBUQUERQUE (ABQ) AFSS TO THE MCALESTER (MCL) AFSS, THE NUMBERS FOR THE ETE WERE INADVERTENTLY SENT OR COPIED AS THE ETA; MCL RECEIVED OR COPIED THE ETA AS 0415 UTC (2315 CDT). A SEARCH WAS NOT INITIATED UNTIL AFTER THE PILOT'S WIFE INQUIRED ABOUT THE OVERDUE AIRPLANE (ABOUT 2209 CDT). THE AIRPLANE WAS LOCATED AT 0628 CDT THE FOLLOWING MORNING. THE SURVIVING PASSENGER REPORTED HEARING 'MOANS DURING THE NIGHT' AND BELIEVED THE RIGHT SEAT PASSENGER WAS ALIVE FOR A TIME AFTER IMPACT.
Probable cause
FAILURE OF THE PILOT TO MAINTAIN MINIMUM CONTROL AIRSPEED (VMC), WHICH RESULTED IN A LOSS OF AIRCRAFT CONTROL. FACTORS RELATED TO THE ACCIDENT WERE: AN OIL LEAK FROM A FATIGUE CRACK IN THE ENGINE CRANKCASE, AND INADEQUATE MAINTENANCE.
Verbatim NTSB analysis and probable cause from the NTSB dataset
Sources
NTSB record FTW94FA273
- Event ID
- 20001206X02033
- Case number
- FTW94FA273
- 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: 39bd947939a37b7a9cac61e3e0649a1d0769744471329b0ff1b696347d7a667d; retrieved 2026-09-21T00:02:19.099Z.