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BFO92LA057 · Cessna 210M

10 May 1992 · West Mifflin, PA, United States

Phoenix Aviation Cessna 210M · Accident: total loss of engine power (non-mechanical) on approach

From 8W5 · Hatteras, NC to Allegheny County Airport (AGC)

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Event

NTSB case
BFO92LA057
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 210M

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
N1411P
Onboard fatalities
Unknown
Route
From 8W5 · Hatteras, NCTo Allegheny County Airport (AGC), West Mifflin, PA
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
Approach · VFR pattern base
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 (non-mechanical)
Also codedOther events the NTSB coded in the sequence, such as a wire strike after a loss of power. Flight Findings uses them for its kinds of event. Glossary
Fuel exhaustion
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

  • Pilot in command › Preflight planning/preparation, inadequate

Approximate · Coordinates as recorded by the NTSB; no uncertainty radius is established.

NTSB narrative

WHILE ON AN EXTENDED BASE LEG THE AIRPLANE'S ENGINE LOST TOTAL POWER. THE AIRPLANE CRASHED JUST SHORT OF THE APPROACH END OF RUNWAY 31. THE ON SCENE INVESTIGATION REVEALED THE AIRPLANE'S FUEL TANKS WERE EMPTY. THE 2 DAY CROSS COUNTRY WAS PLANNED FROM WEST MIFFLIN, PA, TO HATTERAS, NC, RETURNING TO WEST MIFFLIN ON THE FOLLOWING DAY. THE PILOT STATED THE TOTAL FLYING TIME FOR THIS CROSS COUNTRY JUST PRIOR TO THE ENGINE QUITTING, WAS 6.25 HOURS. THE PILOT STATED HE THOUGHT HE HAD 90 GALLONS OF FUEL ON BOARD BEFORE HE STARTED THE CROSS COUNTRY. THE PILOT STATED THE AIRPLANE'S GAUGES ALSO SHOWED THE AIRPLANE'S TANKS WERE FULL PRIOR TO THE DEPARTURE FROM WEST MIFFLIN. THE PILOT STATED THAT THE ANALOG FUEL QUANTITY GAUGE INDICATED, JUST PRIOR TO THE ENGINE QUITTING, THE LEFT FUEL TANK HAD A FEW GALLONS LEFT IN IT AND THE RIGHT FUEL TANK CONTAINED APPROXIMATELY 10-12 GALLONS. CESSNA PERFORMANCE CHARTS SHOW THAT FUEL CONSUMPTION COULD HAVE RANGED FROM 12.5 TO 16.1 GALLONS OF FUEL PER HOUR.

Probable cause

THE PILOT'S INADEQUATE PREFLIGHT PREPARATION. CONTRIBUTING TO THE ACCIDENT WAS THE UNRELIABLE FUEL QUANTITY GAUGES.

Verbatim NTSB analysis and probable cause from the NTSB dataset

Sources

NTSB record BFO92LA057
Event ID
20001211X14584
Case number
BFO92LA057
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 1992-05-11.
  • API snapshot SHA-256: 2be7ea208f07b5db020ed3061ed446c91b236ef354fb23f8ee1ee9ff6755f3f8; retrieved 2026-09-21T15:00:38.588Z.