ATL97LA059 · Cessna 210D
Cessna 210D · Accident: airframe, component or system failure en route
From Redstone Army Air Field (HUA) to Pryor Field Regional Airport (DCU)
Event
- NTSB case
- ATL97LA059
- 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 210D
- 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
- N3761Y
- Operator
- Unknown
- Onboard fatalities
- Unknown
- Route
- From Redstone Army Air Field (HUA)To Pryor Field Regional Airport (DCU), Decatur, AL
- 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 · climb to 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
- Airframe, component or system failure
- 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
- Flight control, elevator tab › Corroded
- Flight control, elevator tab › Failure
- Flight control, elevator › Failure
- Flight control, elevator › Vibration
Approximate · Coordinates as recorded by the NTSB; no uncertainty radius is established.
NTSB narrative
After departing from Redstone Army Airfield, the pilot attempted to level off at 3000 feet. When he did, he experienced difficulties pushing the nose over, which was lessened when nose down trim was applied and power was reduced. As the airplane accelerated, a severe vibration was noted, which was lessened when power was reduced. After trying to pinpoint the problem, the pilot noticed visible damage to the right elevator. A precautionary landing was then executed at the departure airfield. An examination of the elevator revealed a chordwise split and corrosion in the trim tab. There was also a chordwise split in the elevator, that resulted from the oscillation of the trim tab, in flight. Cessna Service Bulletin, SEB92-1, had been issued in January 1992. It recommended that a modification be made to strengthen the trim tab to prevent cracks from forming. The service bulletin recommended that this be accomplished within the next 100 hours of operation or 12 months, whichever occurred first; however, the service bulletin had not been complied with.
Probable cause
corrosion and subsequent failure of the elevator trim tab, which resulted in vibration and failure of the elevator. Failure of maintenance personnel to comply with a service bulletin was a related factor.
Verbatim NTSB analysis and probable cause from the NTSB dataset
Sources
NTSB record ATL97LA059
- Event ID
- 20001208X07664
- Case number
- ATL97LA059
- 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: 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: bc9122a57aa803458353eb19020f71290ab295800c1139f2df8bfcb19283ae3e; retrieved 2026-09-22T19:56:59.936Z.