B & M Enterprises Cessna T210L accident
Cessna T210L · Accident: total loss of engine power (mechanical failure) en route
From Holloman Air Force Base (HMN) to Albuquerque International Sunport (ABQ)
Event
- NTSB case
- FTW95LA174
- 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
- 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
- N1664X
- Operator
- B & M Enterprises
- Onboard fatalities
- Unknown
- Route
- From Holloman Air Force Base (HMN), Alamogordo, NMTo Albuquerque International Sunport (ABQ), Albuquerque, NM
- 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
- En route · cruise
- 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)
- 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
- Wire, transmission; 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
- Substantial
Cause areas
- Engine assembly, valve, exhaust › Separation
- Other maintenance personnel › Maintenance, inadequate
Approximate · Coordinates as recorded by the NTSB; no uncertainty radius is established.
NTSB narrative
DURING THE FORCED LANDING, FOLLOWING A TOTAL LOSS OF ENGINE POWER, IN DARK NIGHT CONDITIONS, THE AIRPLANE STRUCK TRANSMISSION WIRES AND TREES BEFORE COMING TO REST INVERTED ALONG A FENCE ROW. EXAMINATION OF THE ENGINE REVEALED A HOLE IN THE #2 PISTON. PHYSICAL EVIDENCE INDICATED THAT THE EXHAUST VALVE MIGRATED OUT THE EXHAUST. METAL PARTS, FOUND IN THE OIL SUMP, WERE IDENTIFIED AS PARTS OF THE #2 EXHAUST VALVE SEAT. ENGINE S/N 217105R WAS OVERHAULED IN MARCH, 1992; HOWEVER, RECORDS DID NOT INDICATE THAT THE VALVES HAD BEEN CHANGED AT THE OVERHAUL. ACCORDING TO THE MANUFACTURER REPRESENTATIVE, 'GUIDELINES FOR AN ENGINE OVERHAUL REQUIRE CHANGING THE VALVE.' THE ENGINE WAS SUBSEQUENTLY REMOVED AND REASSEMBLED IN AUGUST, 1993, AND IN FEBRUARY, 1994.
Probable cause
THE LOSS OF ENGINE POWER DUE TO EXHAUST VALVE SEPARATION RESULTING FROM INADEQUATE MAINTENANCE. A FACTOR WAS THE DARK NIGHT AND THE LACK OF SUITABLE TERRAIN FOR THE FORCED LANDING.
Verbatim NTSB analysis and probable cause from the NTSB dataset
Sources
NTSB record FTW95LA174
- Event ID
- 20001207X03298
- Case number
- FTW95LA174
- 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: local date, investigation status. Values present in the bulk record are kept.
- The date is the local date; the NTSB stores the UTC date 1995-04-19.
- API snapshot SHA-256: 72fd89919810d37455b65fb344f37dc7b207c878da18f56b18c936a34b7c60b5; retrieved 2026-09-18T18:01:35.667Z.