CHI93FA329 · Cessna 310N
J.C.R. Aviation Cessna 310N · Accident: airframe, component or system failure during initial climb
From Rockford, IL to Dupage Airport (DPA)
Event
- NTSB case
- CHI93FA329
- 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 310N
- Aircraft type
- Cessna 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
- N5005Q
- Operator
- JCR Aviation
- Onboard fatalities
- Unknown
- Route
- From Rockford, ILTo Dupage Airport (DPA), West Chicago, IL
- 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
- Initial climb
- 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
- Electrical system, electric relay › Arcing
- Electrical system, electric wiring › Fire
- Fuel system, line › Fire
Approximate · Coordinates as recorded by the NTSB; no uncertainty radius is established.
NTSB narrative
The airplane departed Rockford Regional Airport on an IFR flight plan. Three minutes after takeoff departure control lost contact with the airplane. Witnesses about 4 miles southeast of the airport saw the airplane turn back toward the airport, and then descend sharply into the ground. One witness reported he saw the airplane on fire before ground impact. The investigation revealed that the right engine starter wire had all the insulation burned off of it, and the starter had overheated significantly. The right engine starter solenoid had evidence of severe arcing. The starter cable runs from the starter solenoid which is in the left engine nacelle to the starter on the right side. The cable is routed along the front wing spar fuselage carry-through alongside the crossfeed fuel lines for both engines. The front spar carry through was completely missing, and the most intense area of the fire was in the cockpit area.
Probable cause
an arcing electrical relay (solenoid) and subsequent overheating/fire of the starter wiring and adjacent fuel lines.
Verbatim NTSB analysis and probable cause from the NTSB dataset
Sources
NTSB record CHI93FA329
- Event ID
- 20001211X13085
- Case number
- CHI93FA329
- Dataset
- historical-pre2008
- Source SHA-256
- 89e2df6d848e7ab3b42e7d7c7a03ff403303057a26ca04c95b3ea67201c3ce74
Source notes (5)
- 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 1993-08-20.
- API snapshot SHA-256: a3ff53fbfc80302ed0ee330997b8be9e6881e64fbe4a61daa0e38b0cfc1b91f6; retrieved 2026-09-21T00:25:13.412Z.
- Corrected after a review of the NTSB narrative, which states these values explicitly: departure. The narrative states "The airplane departed Rockford Regional Airport on an IFR flight plan" and turned back toward the airport after takeoff; the departure was not recorded.