MIA97FA095 · Cessna T210L
Starflight Simmons Aviation Cessna T210L · Accident: loss of control in flight during takeoff
From M82 to M97 · Tunica, MS
Event
- NTSB case
- MIA97FA095
- 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 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
- N2142S
- Operator
- Starflight Simmons Aviation
- Onboard fatalities
- Unknown
- Route
- From M82To M97 · Tunica, MS
- 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
- Takeoff
- 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 control in flight
- 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 obtained/maintained
- Pilot in command › Wrong runway, selected
Approximate · Coordinates as recorded by the NTSB; no uncertainty radius is established.
NTSB narrative
During a weather briefing, the pilot was given weather advisories for occasional IFR conditions en route, en route turbulence, plus a tornado watch that was just to the east of his location, moving east. Pilot-witnesses observed the airplane taking off on runway 18. The pilot seemed to be in a rush. The male passenger commented to one of the witnesses '...that they had a limo rented for 7:30 [1930].' The witnesses did not observe any action on the part of the pilot that 'would [be] consider[ed] [a] pre flight.' In addition, '...[they] noticed...the wind was blowing hard-maybe 20 gusting 30-35 kts. [knots] from about 310 degrees.' The witnesses observed the airplane start the takeoff roll 'downwind.' The airplane accelerated and the engine sounded 'smooth.' After rolling about 1,000 feet, the airplane began to 'hop as if rotation was attempted too early, it then lifted off immediately, banked at least 45 degrees left-nose high- veered left.' The airplane went 'out of control...in a slight nose high, left turn, close to stall configuration, [and] looked real mushy....' The flight lifted off the ground about 5 feet, the right wing dropped, almost striking the runway, then the left wing dropped. The airplane departed the runway to the left, proceeded over the grass between the runway and the taxiway, struck a runway light, a tree, and burst into flames. The reported winds 12 miles southeast of the crash site, about the time of the accident, were from 300 degrees at 23 knots, with gusts to 30 knots.
Probable cause
the pilot's improper decision to takeoff downwind which resulted in his failure to maintain control of the airplane. The winds were a factor.
Verbatim NTSB analysis and probable cause from the NTSB dataset
Sources
NTSB record MIA97FA095
- Event ID
- 20001208X07591
- Case number
- MIA97FA095
- 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 1997-03-06.
- API snapshot SHA-256: 8c6584762a459fa36fb5e593fc311b41a1c17320a81677a09088eefe16fa7b41; retrieved 2026-09-20T23:02:02.162Z.