LAX97LA038 · Cessna 210L
Cessna 210L · Accident: loss of engine power during initial climb
From Q40 · CA to 2Q3 · Davis, CA
Event
- NTSB case
- LAX97LA038
- 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
- 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
- N30115
- Operator
- Robert M. Lunsford, SR · private individual
- Onboard fatalities
- Unknown
- Route
- From Q40 · CATo 2Q3 · Davis, CA
- 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
- Loss of engine power
- 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
- Reason for occurrence undetermined
Approximate · Coordinates as recorded by the NTSB; no uncertainty radius is established.
NTSB narrative
The aircraft's last annual inspection was dated 3/10/87. On 11/6/96, the pilot initiated a flight to ferry it to another airport, where maintenance could be performed. During the initial climb after takeoff, he engine lost power at about 300 feet agl, and during a forced landing, the aircraft came to rest in a farm pond. An examination by an FAA inspector revealed engine and flight control continuity. Fuel was found in both fuel tanks, and no evidence of contaminants were found in the fuel. All fuel lines, oil lines, engine fuel injection lines, exhaust system, and engine ignition system appeared intact. After recovery of the aircraft, no anomalies were noted. FAA inspectors reported that the '. . . aircraft records could not demonstrate a clear picture of airworthiness directive (AD) completion.' In 1985, the pilot had voluntarily surrendered his pilot's certificate instead of retesting for a failed proficiency check.
Probable cause
loss of engine power for undetermined reason(s) after takeoff. The lack of maintenance/annual inspection was a related factor.
Verbatim NTSB analysis and probable cause from the NTSB dataset
Sources
NTSB record LAX97LA038
- Event ID
- 20001208X07068
- Case number
- LAX97LA038
- 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 1996-11-07.
- API snapshot SHA-256: e0f8e5c652993c10bca72ead36ca16cbad164896b10f9a40a2ab77ad0be0aebc; retrieved 2026-09-21T21:32:45.562Z.