FTW98FA319 · Cessna T-310P
Cessna T-310P · Accident: airframe, component or system failure en route
From Centennial Airport (APA) to Abilene Regional Airport (ABI)
Event
- NTSB case
- FTW98FA319
- 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 T-310P
- Aircraft type
- Cessna T-310
- 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
- N5833M
- Operator
- Unknown
- Onboard fatalities
- Unknown
- Route
- From Centennial Airport (APA), Englewood, COTo Abilene Regional Airport (ABI), ABILINE, TX
- 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
- Destroyed
Cause areas
- Exhaust system, stack › Separation
- Fuel system, line › Fire
Approximate · Coordinates as recorded by the NTSB; no uncertainty radius is established.
NTSB narrative
While at 13,700 feet msl during climb, the pilot observed flames inside the right cowling. The fire continued to escalate, and the pilot made a forced landing in a field. Upon landing, the right landing gear collapsed. Postaccident examination revealed a disparity in size and condition between the two engine exhaust stacks. The right exhaust stack was stainless steel, with six inches missing from the bottom section, and several sections that were welded and cracked. The left exhaust stack was Inconel, and had no weld patches or cracks. Both engines were remanufactured/zero timed in November of 1997, and were installed on January 8, 1998. Each engine had a 100-hour inspection performed on June 9, 1998. According to the mechanic who performed the majority of the maintenance work, the aircraft was purchased in May of 1996 with Inconel exhaust stacks, and when he performed the 100-hour inspections, he believed that the airplane left his shop with the Inconel stacks on each engine. The pilot stated that he observed no abnormalities in the exhaust stacks during the preflight prior to departure. No information was found during the investigation to indicate when the stainless steel exhaust stack was installed.
Probable cause
The separation of a portion of the right engine exhaust stack, and the ensuing fuel fire in the right engine nacelle.
Verbatim NTSB analysis and probable cause from the NTSB dataset
Sources
NTSB record FTW98FA319
- Event ID
- 20001211X10558
- Case number
- FTW98FA319
- 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: 68cba641ecb9308e76ac37347c4005f8247d980633725574187756f7f12f30dd; retrieved 2026-09-21T20:45:50.000Z.