LAX92LA258 · Cessna T210N
Glacier Ice Cessna T210N · Accident: total loss of engine power (mechanical failure) en route
From Truckee Tahoe Airport (TRK) to Livermore Municipal Airport (LVK)
Event
- NTSB case
- LAX92LA258
- 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 T210N
- 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
- N9933N
- Operator
- Glacier Ice
- Onboard fatalities
- Unknown
- Route
- From Truckee Tahoe Airport (TRK), Truckee, CATo Livermore Municipal Airport (LVK), Livermore, CA
- 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
- Engine assembly, bearing › Slipped
- Engine assembly, connecting rod cap › Failure, total
- Engine assembly, other › Undertorqued
- Fluid, oil › Starvation
- Lubricating system, oil port/passage, internal › Blocked(total)
- Other maintenance personnel › Maintenance, overhaul, improper
Approximate · Coordinates as recorded by the NTSB; no uncertainty radius is established.
NTSB narrative
THE PILOT SAID HE WAS IN CRUISE AT 10,500 FEET WHEN THE OIL PRESSURE WENT TO ZERO AND THE OIL TEMPERATURE ROSE. THE ENGINE QUIT SHORTLY THEREAFTER. THE AIRCRAFT THEN COLLIDED WITH GROUND OBSTRUCTIONS DURING A UPHILL FORCED LANDING ATTEMPT IN MOUNTAINOUS TERRAIN. EXTERNAL EXAMINATION OF THE ENGINE REVEALED THAT THE NUMBER 2 CONNECTING ROD HAD FAILED AND WAS STICKING UP THROUGH THE CASE. INTERNAL EXAMINATION OF THE ENGINE REVEALED THAT THE NUMBER 2 MAIN BEARING HAD SPUN IN THE JOURNAL, WITH SEVERE ABRASION NOTED UNDER THE BEARING INSERTS. THE OIL CHANNEL IN THE NUMBER 2 MAIN BEARING JOURNAL WAS FOUND TOTALLY PLUGGED WITH METAL PARTICLES. PROGRESSIVE HEAT DISCOLORATION AND COMPONENT DISTRESS WAS FOUND DOWNSTREAM IN THE OILING PATH OF THE NUMBER 2 MAIN BEARING. THE ENGINE AND BEARINGS WAS EXAMINED BY A TECHNICAL REPRESENTATIVE FROM CONTINENTAL ENGINES WHO OPINED THAT THE BEARING HAD BEEN INTERMITTENTLY SPINNING ON THE JOURNAL FOR 10 HOURS AND THAT THE FAILURE OF THE NUMBER 2 CONNECTING ROD WAS DUE TO OIL STARVATION CAUSED BY THE RESTRICTIONS IN THE OIL PATH. HE STATED THAT THE MOST LIKELY CAUSE OF THE BEARING SPIN CONDITION WAS UNDER TORQUE OF THE CASE THROUGH BOLTS AT THE NUMBER 2 MAIN BEARING AREA. THE ENGINE WAS OVERHAULED 70 HOURS PRIOR TO THE ACCIDENT.
Probable cause
THE UNDER TORQUE OF THE CRANKCASE THROUGH BOLTS DURING OVERHAUL CAUSING; 1) THE NUMBER 2 MAIN BEARING TO SPIN, 2) THE RESULTANT BLOCKAGE OF THE INTERNAL OIL PASSAGE, AND 3) THE OIL STARVATION INDUCED FAILURE OF THE NUMBER 2 CONNECTING ROD AND CAP. A FACTOR IN THE ACCIDENT WAS THE UNSUITABLE NATURE OF THE TERRAIN WHICH MADE A SUCCESSFUL FORCED LANDING IMPOSSIBLE.
Verbatim NTSB analysis and probable cause from the NTSB dataset
Sources
NTSB record LAX92LA258
- Event ID
- 20001211X14912
- Case number
- LAX92LA258
- 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 1992-06-24.
- API snapshot SHA-256: a9c9d1c088c94584058bd0d9a5227d58bcea9c46a7f6ea9d4ffaf6b90cdc7129; retrieved 2026-09-21T23:14:27.375Z.