SEA97FA097 · Cessna T210M
Cessna T210M · Accident: loss of control in flight on approach
From Gunnison Crested Butte Regional Airport (GUC) to U07
Event
- NTSB case
- SEA97FA097
- 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
- 4 · 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 T210M
- 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
- N732QB
- Operator
- Sweitzer, Robert, S. · private individual
- Onboard fatalities
- Unknown
- Route
- From Gunnison Crested Butte Regional Airport (GUC), Gunnison, COTo U07
- 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 · VFR pattern base
- 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
- 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
- Stall
- 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 › Airspeed, inadequate
Approximate · Coordinates as recorded by the NTSB; no uncertainty radius is established.
NTSB narrative
A witness at the airport observed the aircraft arrive and reported it as being 'slower and lower' than other aircraft he had seen arriving. He also reported that 'at the north end he (the aircraft) made a sharp left turn - he seemed vertical to the ground.' A witness in a different location confirmed seeing the aircraft at a high angle of bank. The aircraft impacted the ground approximately 40 degrees nose low and 90 degrees left wing down. The pilot was experienced in the accident aircraft and familiar with the airport. The aircraft's weight at the time of the accident was estimated to be between 3,350 to 3,800 pounds (the latter weight being maximum gross takeoff weight). No evidence of control or power plant malfunction was found. The flaps were fully extended as were the landing gear. The fire damaged remains of an assortment of tools, construction material, personal effects as well as a cooler of beer, all totaled to weigh an estimated 200 pounds minimally, were found in the cabin area. The pilot-in-command's toxicology was negative, however the rear left seat passenger screened positive for ethanol (0.14 gm/dl blood (heart) and 0.15 gm/dl vitreous).
Probable cause
The pilot-in-command's failure to maintain adequate flying airspeed, for reason(s) unknown, resulting in a subsequent stall.
Verbatim NTSB analysis and probable cause from the NTSB dataset
Sources
NTSB record SEA97FA097
- Event ID
- 20001208X08010
- Case number
- SEA97FA097
- 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: cb771d0b8cd2bb200369d736b7ec21c17caf385bf93512e460245e0de8cf5d1e; retrieved 2026-09-20T22:58:38.069Z.