LAX93LA194 · Cessna P210N
Cessna P210N · Accident: total loss of engine power (mechanical failure) en route
From Hayward Executive Airport (HWD) to an unrecorded destination
Event
- NTSB case
- LAX93LA194
- 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 P210N
- 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
- N731HP
- Operator
- Unknown
- Onboard fatalities
- Unknown
- Route
- From Hayward Executive Airport (HWD), Hayward, CATo not recorded
- 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
- 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
- Other maintenance personnel › Maintenance, overhaul, major, poor
- Pilot in command › Operation with known deficiencies in equipment, continued
- Pilot in command › Planning/decision, poor
Approximate · Estimated position: the centre of Oakland, CA, the place the record names. Not the accident site.
NTSB narrative
SHORTLY AFTER DEPARTING A LOCAL AIRPORT THE AIRPLANE SUSTAINED A TOTAL LOSS OF POWER AND SUBSEQUENTLY CRASHED IN A RESIDENTIAL SECTION. THE PILOT RECENTLY PURCHASED THE AIRPLANE. DURING THE THE PRE-BUY INSPECTION AT A MIDWEST FACILITY, THE OIL FILTER CHECK AND THE OIL ANALYSIS REVEALED THE PRESENCE OF METAL PARTICLES. THE BROKER ADVISED THE PILOT NOT TO FLY THE AIRPLANE UNTIL THE ENGINE WAS OVERHAULED OR EXCHANGED. THE PILOT SETTLED FOR A PRICE REDUCTION, PURCHASED THE AIRPLANE, AND RETURNED IT TO NORTHERN CALIFORNIA. THE PILOT CONTINUED TO FLY THE AIRPLANE AND ACCRUED 22.9 HOURS AT THE TIME OF THE ACCIDENT. THE POST ACCIDENT ENGINE EXAMINATION DISCLOSED THE CRANKSHAFT FAILED IN FATIGUE AT THE NO. 2 JOURNAL WHERE IT EXITS THE NO. 2 MAIN BEARING. METALLURGICAL EXAMINATION REVEALED THE FATIGUE INITIATED DUE TO IMPROPER TORQUE OF THE THRU-BOLTS. THE AIRFRAME AND ENGINE HAD ACCRUED 937.4 TOTAL HOURS. THE ENGINE WAS OVERHAULED DUE TO A PROPELLER STRIKE WHEN IT HAD ACCRUED 522.5 HOURS.
Probable cause
the pilot's poor decision to continue flying the airplane with a known deficiency and the poorly performed major overhaul of the engine. The failed crankshaft due to fatigue are factors in this accident.
Verbatim NTSB analysis and probable cause from the NTSB dataset
Sources
NTSB record LAX93LA194
- Event ID
- 20001211X12182
- Case number
- LAX93LA194
- 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 1993-05-01.
- API snapshot SHA-256: dd861d92ad2b00ab864af48b0f58ab328f78244a27d8dcff07407818481d02af; retrieved 2026-09-21T14:27:06.772Z.