FTW97LA064 · Cessna P210N
Corporate Aircraft Marketing Cessna P210N · Accident: total loss of engine power (non-mechanical) en route
From Fort Smith Regional Airport (FSM) to Tulsa International Airport (TUL)
Event
- NTSB case
- FTW97LA064
- 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 P210N
- 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
- N210BG
- Operator
- Corporate Aircraft Marketing
- Onboard fatalities
- Unknown
- Route
- From Fort Smith Regional Airport (FSM), Fort Smith, ARTo Tulsa International Airport (TUL), Tulsa, 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
- 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 (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 exhaustion
- 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 › Exhaustion
- Pilot in command › Fuel consumption calculations, inaccurate
- Pilot in command › Fuel supply, inadequate
- Pilot in command › Planning/decision, improper
Approximate · Coordinates as recorded by the NTSB; no uncertainty radius is established.
NTSB narrative
The pilot was hired to fly the aircraft from Tulsa, Oklahoma, to Little Rock, Arkansas, to Gulf Shores, Alabama, for prospective buyers to examine the aircraft, and then to return to Tulsa. After takeoff from Tulsa International Airport, the tower advised the pilot that smoke was coming from the aircraft. He returned to the airport and had the aircraft checked for the source of smoke. He was informed that the aircraft had a Riley Intercooler Conversion, which dictated that the mixture be leaned for takeoff. He then departed with no apparent problem. At Gulf Shores, the pilot demonstrated the aircraft, and 25 gallons of fuel were added. He then departed Gulf Shores for a night, cross-country flight back to Tulsa. He diverted to Fort Smith Regional Airport, Fort Smith, Arkansas for fuel. Nine gallons of fuel were added, and then he departed for Tulsa. Subsequently, the airplane was damaged during a forced landing at night at the Davis Airport, Muskogee, Oklahoma. The total fuel drained from all of the fuel tanks was 1.5 gallons, and there was no evidence of fuel spillage. Investigation showed that 154 gallons of fuel were available for the mission. Estimated fuel required to reach Muskogee with no reserve was 154 gallons.
Probable cause
the pilot's improper planning/decision and inaccurate fuel consumption calculations, which resulted in an inadequate supply of fuel, fuel exhaustion, and a subsequent forced landing at night. Darkness was a related factor.
Verbatim NTSB analysis and probable cause from the NTSB dataset
Sources
NTSB record FTW97LA064
- Event ID
- 20001208X07163
- Case number
- FTW97LA064
- 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 1996-12-18.
- API snapshot SHA-256: b0171caa7ab44df490596772918101c61e15544715520962675932111f8e4210; retrieved 2026-09-21T12:16:12.485Z.