CHI92FA215 · Cessna P210N
Jeanal Enterprises Cessna P210N · Accident: total loss of engine power (mechanical failure) en route
From Des Moines International Airport (DSM) to Wittman Regional Airport (OSH)
Event
- NTSB case
- CHI92FA215
- 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
- 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 P210N
- 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
- N6503W
- Operator
- Jeanal Enterprises
- Onboard fatalities
- Unknown
- Route
- From Des Moines International Airport (DSM), Des Moines, IATo Wittman Regional Airport (OSH), Oshkosh, WI
- 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 · descent
- 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)
- 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
- Stall
- 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
- Pilot in command › Stall, inadvertent
Approximate · Coordinates as recorded by the NTSB; no uncertainty radius is established.
NTSB narrative
THE PILOT REPORTED A LOSS OF ENGINE POWER AND DECLARED AN EMERGENCY. ATC ISSUED VECTORS TO THE NEAREST AIRPORT, WHICH WAS ABOUT TEN MILES AWAY. THE PILOT THEN ADVISED ATC HE LOST THE PROPELLER. ABOUT 3 MINUTES AFTER THE EMERGENCY WAS DECLARED, THE PILOT REPORTED 'I HAVE THE FIELD....DON'T THINK I'M GOING TO MAKE IT.' THE AIRPLANE IMPACTED TERRAIN ABOUT 1.5 MILES EAST OF THE AIRPORT. POST-ACCIDENT INVESTIGATION REVEALED THE CRANKSHAFT WAS SEPARATED IN TWO LOCATIONS AND THE NO. 2 MAIN BEARING HAD SHIFTED IN THE JOURNAL. METALLURGICAL EXAMINATION REVEALED ONE FRACTURE WAS DETERMINED TO BE DUE TO OVERSTRESS AND EXCESSIVE TORSIONAL LOADS. THE OTHER FRACTURE '...CONTAINED A WELL DEFINED CRACK ARREST PATTERN INDICATIVE OF A HIGH CYCLE FATIGUE CRACK. EXAMINATION OF THE CRANKCASE HALVES REVEALED EVIDENCE OF FRETTING AT THE MATING SURFACES.
Probable cause
THE PILOT'S INADVERTENT STALL AND DESCENT INTO TERRAIN DURING A FORCED LANDING. RELATED FACTORS ARE THE MANUFACTURER'S UNDERTORQUED CRANKCASE HALVES AND INADEQUATE SURVEILLANCE, THE PILOT'S DELAY IN SETTING UP THE PROPER DESCENT RATE, AND THE ALTERED AIRCRAFT PERFORMANCE WITH THE SEPARATED PROPELLER ASSEMBLY.
Verbatim NTSB analysis and probable cause from the NTSB dataset
Sources
NTSB record CHI92FA215
- Event ID
- 20001211X15103
- Case number
- CHI92FA215
- 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: 5d6bc27dfbfde78885ffaaf90b08398f70516bcffabdd376904011acf4d248ad; retrieved 2026-09-21T01:01:26.503Z.