Air Vegas Cessna T210L accident
Cessna T210L · Accident: partial loss of engine power (mechanical failure) en route
From Grand Canyon National Park Airport (GCN) to L15 · Las Vegas, NV
Event
- NTSB case
- LAX92FA092
- 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
- Charter & commuter
- 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 T210L
- 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
- N22592
- Operator
- Air Vegas
- Onboard fatalities
- Unknown
- Route
- From Grand Canyon National Park Airport (GCN), Grand Canyon, AZTo L15 · Las Vegas, NV
- 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 135: Air Taxi & Commuter
- 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 · 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
- Partial 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
- Exhaust system, turbocharger › Fatigue
- Other maintenance personnel › Maintenance, overhaul, inadequate
- Pilot in command › In-flight planning/decision, improper
Approximate · Coordinates as recorded by the NTSB; no uncertainty radius is established.
NTSB narrative
THE PLT SAID THAT DRG DSCNT FM 10,500 FT, THE MANIFOLD PRESSURE DROPPED TO 18 INCHES. HE DECIDED TO LND AT A NRBY ARPT. WHILE DIAGNOSING THE PROBLEM, HE TURNED ON THE BOOST PUMP & THE ENG LOST MORE PWR. THE COCKPIT BGN TO FILL WITH SMOKE. THE PLT SECURED THE ENG & TURNED THE ELEC SYS OFF. HE BGN A PWR-OFF DSCNT OVR THE ARPT & MANUALLY EXTENDED THE LNDG GEAR. HE THOUGHT HE WAS TOO HIGH, SO HE TURNED THE BATTERY 'ON' TO LOWER THE FLAPS. WITH ELEC PWR RESTORED, THE LNDG GEAR RETURNED TO THE 'UP' PSN. THE PLT AGAIN LOWERED THE LNDG GEAR. UNABLE TO REACH THE RWY, HE TRIED TO RE-START THE ENG ON FINAL APCH, BUT DID NOT HAVE ENOUGH TIME. SUBSEQUENTLY, THE ACFT IMPACTED AN UP SLOPE ABOUT 300 FT SHORT OF THE RWY & CRASHED. AN EXAM OF THE TURBOCHARGER REVEALED THE TURBINE SHAFT FAILED DUE TO MULTIPLE FATIGUE CRACKS. ABOUT 125 FLT HRS BEFORE THE FAILURE, THE TURBINE SHAFT HAD BEEN REWORKED (GROUND & CHROMIUM PLATED), BUT NOT IN ACCORDANCE WITH THE MANUFACTURER'S SPECIFICATIONS. TURBOCHARGER MALFUNCTION WAS NOT ADDRESSED IN THE POH.
Probable cause
FATIGUE FAILURE OF THE TURBOCHARGER'S TURBINE SHAFT DUE TO INADEQUATE MAINTENANCE, AND THE PILOT'S IMPROPER IN-FLIGHT PLANNING/DECISION AFTER EXPERIENCING A TURBOCHARGER FAILURE. A FACTOR RELATED TO THE ACCIDENT WAS: THE LACK OF INFORMATION IN THE PILOT OPERATING HANDBOOK CONCERNING TURBOCHARGER FAILURE OR MALFUNCTION.
Verbatim NTSB analysis and probable cause from the NTSB dataset
Sources
NTSB record LAX92FA092
- Event ID
- 20001211X13999
- Case number
- LAX92FA092
- 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: 8d5108f7c693a9020afe7a1f3e7210c5d97149116be7319ca5498df89662166b; retrieved 2026-09-18T14:00:49.715Z.