Flight Express Cessna 210M accident
Cessna 210M · Accident: loss of engine power en route
From Tampa International Airport (TPA) to Miami-Opa Locka Executive Airport (OPF)
Event
- NTSB case
- MIA96LA215
- 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 210M
- 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
- N732ST
- Operator
- Flight Express
- Onboard fatalities
- Unknown
- Route
- From Tampa International Airport (TPA), Tampa, FLTo Miami-Opa Locka Executive Airport (OPF), FL
- 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
- 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 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
- Fluid, fuel › Starvation
- Pilot in command › Fuel management, improper
Approximate · Coordinates as recorded by the NTSB; no uncertainty radius is established.
NTSB narrative
The pilot stated he was in cruise flight at 3,000 feet, when the engine quit. He said that he moved the fuel selector from the left main tank to the right main tank and attempted two engine restarts, which were unsuccessful. A forced landing was made in the Everglades. Visual examination of the left fuel tank revealed no fuel and the fuel cap was tight. Fuel was present in the right fuel tank and the fuel cap was tight. The wings were not damaged and no fuel leaks were observed. Review of aircraft log books revealed no discrepancies relating to fuel quantity indications or fuel flow discrepancies. The airplane was recovered and the wings were reinstalled to provide a pressurized system for an engine test run. The engine started and was operated for 17 minutes.
Probable cause
the pilot's improper fuel management, which resulted in a loss of engine power due to fuel starvation, a forced landing, and subsequent in flight collision with terrain. The lack of suitable terrain for a forced landing was a related factor.
Verbatim NTSB analysis and probable cause from the NTSB dataset
Sources
NTSB record MIA96LA215
- Event ID
- 20001208X06584
- Case number
- MIA96LA215
- 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: ada56e58bb066eab68889400dd7473bf9ab81ed1f5bdd09f278d9f72fb0ddd2b; retrieved 2026-09-18T17:47:15.660Z.
- The NTSB's operator name is blank for N732ST; the operator shown is the name the NTSB's other records give its FAA operator code, FPIA.