LAX92FA289 · Cessna T210N
Cessna T210N · Accident: total loss of engine power (mechanical failure) en route
From Safford Regional Airport (SAD) to Phoenix Sky Harbor International Airport (PHX)
Event
- NTSB case
- LAX92FA289
- 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
- 1 · 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
- N6483C
- Operator
- Edward Curtis
- Onboard fatalities
- Unknown
- Route
- From Safford Regional Airport (SAD), Safford, AZTo Phoenix Sky Harbor International Airport (PHX), Phoenix, AZ
- 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
- Destroyed
Cause areas
- Other maintenance personnel › Maintenance, overhaul, major, inadequate
Approximate · Estimated position: the centre of Superior, AZ, the place the record names. Not the accident site.
NTSB narrative
THE CERTIFICATED PRIVATE PILOT, THE SOLE OCCUPANT, WAS ON A CROSS COUNTRY BUSINESS FLIGHT WHEN THE ENGINE QUIT. THE PILOT MADE A FORCED LANDING ABOUT 250 FEET SHORT OF A DIRT AIRSTRIP. THE AIRPLANE WAS DESTROYED BY IMPACT AND A POST IMPACT FIRE, AND THE PILOT WAS FATALLY INJURED. EXAMINATION OF THE ENGINE REVEALED A BROKEN CRANKSHAFT ON THE CRANKCHEEK ADJACENT TO THE NUMBER 1 CYLINDER. THE CRANKSHAFT HAD BEEN REPLACED 42 HOURS PRIOR TO THE ACCIDENT. THE CRANKSHAFT WAS SUPPLIED FROM AN ENGINE WITH AN ACCUMULATED TOTAL TIME OF ABOUT 1,000 HOURS OF OPERATION THAT HAD PREVIOUSLY SUSTAINED A SEPARATION OF THE NUMBER 1 CYLINDER FROM THE ENGINE CASE. AFTER AN INSPECTION, THE CRANKSHAFT WAS DETERMINED TO BE SERVICEABLE AND INSTALLED IN THE ACCIDENT AIRPLANE'S ENGINE. METALLURGICAL EXAMINATION REVEALED A HIGH CYCLE FATIGUE FAILURE CONSISTENT WITH SURFACE INITIATED CRACKING. A METALLURGICAL REPORT INDICATED THAT SURFACE CRACKING WOULD NOT BE EXPECTED IN THE AREA OF FAILURE UNLESS PRIOR DAMAGE TO THE SURFACE HAD OCCURRED.
Probable cause
AN INADEQUATE MAJOR ENGINE OVERHAUL PROCEDURE, DURING WHICH PREVIOUS CRANKSHAFT DAMAGE WAS NOT DETECTED. CONTRIBUTING TO THE ACCIDENT WAS A SURFACE INITIATED FATIGUE FAILURE OF THE ENGINE CRANKSHAFT.
Verbatim NTSB analysis and probable cause from the NTSB dataset
Sources
NTSB record LAX92FA289
- Event ID
- 20001211X15170
- Case number
- LAX92FA289
- 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: d9b8afb2315d421523749778dcd54284d6ab2a7a8df890de72711b128158b1a9; retrieved 2026-09-21T01:02:52.009Z.