LAX92LA355 · Cessna T210L
Cessna T210L · Accident: total loss of engine power (non-mechanical) on approach
From Oakland San Francisco Bay Airport (OAK) to Fallbrook Community Airpark (L18)
Event
- NTSB case
- LAX92LA355
- 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 T210L
- 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
- N60856
- Operator
- Thomas E. Grossi · private individual
- Onboard fatalities
- Unknown
- Route
- From Oakland San Francisco Bay Airport (OAK), Oakland, CATo Fallbrook Community Airpark (L18), Fallbrook, 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
- Approach · VFR pattern downwind
- 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
- Substantial
Cause areas
- Fluid, fuel › Exhaustion
- Pilot in command › Preflight planning/preparation, inadequate
- Pilot in command › Refueling, not performed
Approximate · Coordinates as recorded by the NTSB; no uncertainty radius is established.
NTSB narrative
WHILE IN THE TRAFFIC PATTERN THE ENGINE QUIT AND THE PILOT ATTEMPTED TO LAND IN A NEARBY FIELD. THE AIRCRAFT COLLIDED WITH A BERM DURING THE LANDING ROLL. FAA AIRWORTHINESS INSPECTORS EXAMINED THE AIRCRAFT AND REPORTED THAT FUEL SYSTEM CONTINUITY WAS ESTABLISHED. ONLY 5 TOTAL GALLONS OF FUEL WERE FOUND IN THE AIRCRAFT TANKS. THE PILOT SAID THE AIRCRAFT WAS LAST FUELED 8/10/92 IN TEMECULA, CALIFORNIA, WITH THE ADDITION OF 65.5 GALLONS OF FUEL. THE PILOT SAID HE ORDERED THE TANKS TOPPED AT THAT TIME. THE AIRCRAFT WAS THEN FLOWN 2.5 HOURS TO OAKLAND AND PARKED WITHOUT REFUELING. ON 8/16/92 THE AIRCRAFT WAS FLOWN IN THE LOCAL OAKLAND AREA FOR ABOUT ONE HALF HOUR AND AGAIN PARKED WITHOUT REFUELING. ON THE DAY OF THE MISHAP THE PILOT FLEW THE AIRCRAFT 2.5 HOURS TO FALLBROOK, WHERE THE ENGINE QUIT IN THE TRAFFIC PATTERN.
Probable cause
FUEL EXHAUSTION DUE TO THE FAILURE OF THE PILOT TO REFUEL THE AIRCRAFT PRIOR TO DEPARTURE.
Verbatim NTSB analysis and probable cause from the NTSB dataset
Sources
NTSB record LAX92LA355
- Event ID
- 20001211X15452
- Case number
- LAX92LA355
- 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: e7585f9b6bd5c8163c8612f32cbc08ad551352f90ba4fe2ad74e6f7ec7a3ca89; retrieved 2026-09-23T02:45:03.696Z.