CHI97FA102 · Cessna T210N
Cessna T210N · Accident: in flight collision with terrain/water on approach
From Pittsburgh/Butler Regional Airport (BTP) to Rolla National Airport (VIH)
Event
- NTSB case
- CHI97FA102
- 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
- 2 · 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
- Instrument Meteorological Cond
Cessna T210N
- 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
- N5310A
- Operator
- Unknown
- Onboard fatalities
- Unknown
- Route
- From Pittsburgh/Butler Regional Airport (BTP), Butler, PATo Rolla National Airport (VIH)
- 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
- Approach · IFR missed approach
- 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
- In flight collision with terrain/water
- 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 › IFR procedure, not followed
- Pilot in command › Minimum descent altitude, not maintained
Approximate · Coordinates as recorded by the NTSB; no uncertainty radius is established.
NTSB narrative
The aircraft had been topped off with fuel and had departed Butler, PA, about 1652 EDT. The pilot was informed that the destination weather was 1/4 mile visibility in fog, 200 foot overcast, and wind from 350 degrees at 6 mph. The airport elevation was 1,148 feet. The approach minimums for the VOR Rwy 22 approach were 1,500 foot minimum descent altitude (MDA) with 400 foot ceiling and 3/4 mile prevailing visibility. The pilot continued to fly the approach and descended below minimums. The passenger, who survived the accident, reported that the airport was covered with fog. He saw the altimeter read 1,300 feet msl and said the pilot applied power and turned to the north. The missed approach procedure was to climb to 2,700 msl, then turn right direct to VIH VOR/DME and hold. The airplane impacted trees and crashed about 1/2 mile northwest of the airport. Elevation of the crash site was about 1,125 feet. Inspection of the wreckage indicated that full flaps had been selected, and the landing gear was extended. Go-around flaps were 20 degrees. The three propeller blades had chordwise gouges and scratches, and the tips had forward twist. No engine or airframe anomalies were found.
Probable cause
failure of the pilot to properly follow the missed approach procedure and maintain the minimum descent altitude (MDA) during night/IFR flight. Factors relating to the accident included: darkness, low ceiling, fog, and failure of the pilot to properly configure the airplane for the go-around (improper use of full flaps and gear retraction not performed).
Verbatim NTSB analysis and probable cause from the NTSB dataset
Sources
NTSB record CHI97FA102
- Event ID
- 20001208X07671
- Case number
- CHI97FA102
- 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 1997-04-12.
- API snapshot SHA-256: bcf7892f599bc82fecbcc0522f31fc183ef3abf157fc56f7bd47e2736817fd58; retrieved 2026-09-20T22:59:51.448Z.