ATL92LA073 · Cessna 210
Cessna 210 · Accident: total loss of engine power (mechanical failure) en route
From an unrecorded airport to Jacksonville International Airport (JAX)
Event
- NTSB case
- ATL92LA073
- 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 210
- 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
- N7320E
- Operator
- Held, Daniel Z. · private individual
- Onboard fatalities
- Unknown
- Route
- From not recordedTo Jacksonville International Airport (JAX), Jacksonville, FL
- 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 · 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
- Substantial
Cause areas
- Eng assembly, crankshaft counterweights/vib damper › Not secured
- Other maintenance personnel › Maintenance, overhaul, major, improper
Approximate · Coordinates as recorded by the NTSB; no uncertainty radius is established.
NTSB narrative
WHILE CRUISING AT 5000 FEET MSL, THE PILOT EXPERIENCED A COMPLETE LOSS OF ENGINE POWER. THE PILOT ESTABLISHED AN EMERGENCY DESCENT FOR A FORCED LANDING IN A NEARBY FIELD. UPON TOUCHDOWN, THE NOSE WHEEL DUG INTO THE PLOWED FIELD AND THE AIRPLANE NOSED OVER. THE ENGINE EXAMINATION DISCLOSED THAT THE NO. 3 AND NO. 4 CONNECTING RODS WERE BROKEN AND THERE WAS A HOLE IN THE ENGINE CRANKCASE ADJACENT TO THE #4 CYLINDER. THE ENGINE TEARDOWN REVEALED THAT 2 COUNTERWEIGHT RETENTION RINGS HAD BEEN DISLODGED FROM THEIR NORMALLY INSTALLED POSITIONS. THE EXAMINATION ALSO REVEALED THAT THE RETENTION RINGS WERE INSTALLED WITH THE BEVELLED SIDE OF THE RING OUTBOARD AND THE FLAT SIDE INBOARD. ACCORDING TO THE ENGINE OVERHAUL MANUAL, THE FLAT SIDE OF THE RETENTION RINGS SHOULD BE INSTALLED OUTBOARD. THE REMAINING RETENTION RINGS WERE INSTALLED PROPERLY. HISTORICAL MAINTENANCE INFORMATION ON THE COUNTERWEIGHT WAS NOT RECOVERED.
Probable cause
THE IMPROPER INSTALLATION OF THE ENGINE COUNTERWEIGHT RETENTION RINGS WHICH RESULTED IN THE SEPARATION OF THE RETENTION PIN, ALLOWING THE LEADING EDGE OF THE COUNTERWEIGHT TO STRIKE THE CRANKCASE. FACTORS IN THE ACCIDENT WERE THE SUBSEQENT LOSS OF POWER AND THE SOFT FIELD.
Verbatim NTSB analysis and probable cause from the NTSB dataset
Sources
NTSB record ATL92LA073
- Event ID
- 20001211X14371
- Case number
- ATL92LA073
- 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: 215c9e895a75965c0f05417a7bfe13071cbd52b8b11992b1db24b257e7f8ae83; retrieved 2026-09-23T03:15:52.593Z.