CHI92LA179 · Cessna 210B
Cessna 210B · Accident: partial loss of engine power (mechanical failure) during initial climb
Event
- NTSB case
- CHI92LA179
- 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 210B
- 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
- N9545X
- Operator
- Nollau, Leland C. · private individual
- Onboard fatalities
- Unknown
- Route
- From not recordedTo 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
- 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
- Partial loss of engine power (mechanical failure)
- 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
- Tree(s)
- 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
- Fuel system, pump › Pressure excessive
Approximate · Estimated position: the centre of Belleville, IL, the place the record names. Not the accident site.
NTSB narrative
THE PILOT STATED THAT AS THE AIRPLANE BEGAN TO CLIMB OUT THERE WAS A LOSS OF ENGINE RPM AND THE ENGINE STARTED TO RUN ROUGH. A POST-ACCIDENT ENGINE RUN-UP WAS CONDUCTED. THE ENGINE STARTED EASILY AND OPERATED NORMALLY AT LOW POWER SETTINGS. AFTER A WARM UP PERIOD THE THROTTLE WAS ADVANCED TO 2500 RPM, AND 'THE ENGINE THEN STARTED TO RUN ROUGH, WITH BLACK SMOKE AND FLAMES COMING OUT THE EXHAUST... .' A FUEL PUMP BENCH TEST REVEALED THE HIGH END DISCHARGE ADJUSTMENT WAS SET HIGHER THAN RECOMMENDED. THE TEST STAND DISCHARGE GAGE PEGGED ON THE HIGH SIDE WHEN THE RPM WAS ADVANCED TO 2600 RPM PER TEST PARAMETERS. THE AIRCRAFT HAD FLOWN 1.1 HOURS SINCE THE ANNUAL INSPECTION WAS COMPLETED 8 MONTHS BEFORE THE ACCIDENT. LOGBOOKS INDICATED THE ENTIRE FUEL SYSTEM WAS REMOVED, OVERHAULED, REINSTALLED AND ADJUSTED IN DECEMBER, 1990, APPROXIMATELY 4 FLIGHT HOURS BEFORE THE ACCIDENT.
Probable cause
THE IMPROPER FUEL PUMP HIGH END DISCHARGE ADJUSTMENT. A RELATED FACTOR IS IMPROPER MAINTENANCE/ANNUAL INSPECTION.
Verbatim NTSB analysis and probable cause from the NTSB dataset
Sources
NTSB record CHI92LA179
- Event ID
- 20001211X14818
- Case number
- CHI92LA179
- 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: 402b9d5d34728ffcc1324b15f060faa84a89759f4a3423387a94fd424c8100df; retrieved 2026-09-23T03:03:17.141Z.