SEA98FA092 · Cessna T210N
Cessna T210N · Accident: total loss of engine power (mechanical failure) on approach
From SUN RIVER, OR to Portland Hillsboro Airport (HIO)
Event
- NTSB case
- SEA98FA092
- 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
- Visual 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
- N199JM
- Operator
- Unknown
- Onboard fatalities
- Unknown
- Route
- From SUN RIVER, ORTo Portland Hillsboro Airport (HIO), Hillsboro, OR
- 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
- 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 (mechanical failure)
- 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
- Engine assembly, connecting rod › Binding(mechanical)
- Engine assembly, crankshaft › Fatigue
- Engine assembly, other › Binding(mechanical)
- Other maintenance personnel › Maintenance, installation, improper
Approximate · Coordinates as recorded by the NTSB; no uncertainty radius is established.
NTSB narrative
The pilot-in-command reported a power loss on approach to the runway. The aircraft passed through the tops of trees approximately 150 feet beyond, and entered a stall/spin maneuver, impacting a power line and the ground approximately 2,800 feet short of the runway threshold. The flaps and landing gear were in a retracted position. Post-crash examination revealed the crankshaft separated in fatigue which originated from a circumferential gouge mark on the aft face of the #2 cheek at an area located outboard of the forward radius of the #1 rod journal. The circumferential gouge mark on the crankcheek was consistent with the connecting rod shifting forward during engine operation. The rub marks on the cheek walls of the #1 connecting rod were consistent with tight piston pin bushing to piston pin clearance. Additionally, the bushings for all the connecting rods were undersize. Airframe/engine logs revealed a top overhaul of the engine approximately 23 hours prior to the crankshaft failure, during which the piston pins were replaced but the connecting rod bushings were not. No dimensional check of the bushings was made or required at that time. The engine was overhauled 515 hours previous to the top overhaul. The manufacturer's overhaul manual specifies that the new bushings should be reamed to the specified (inside) diameter. Post-crash examination of the engine revealed non-standard connecting rod cotter keys and light fretting between the engine case halves.
Probable cause
Improper installation (bushing), mechanical binding (bushing), mechanical binding (connecting rod), and fatigue within the crankshaft. Contributing factors were inadequate major (engine) overhaul and trees.
Verbatim NTSB analysis and probable cause from the NTSB dataset
Sources
NTSB record SEA98FA092
- Event ID
- 20001211X10416
- Case number
- SEA98FA092
- 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: 9f83aefc62392e654e1981c997905544da28ed534f3abdf1b526f1b9a4ec487f; retrieved 2026-09-20T22:33:04.522Z.