LAX91FA081 · Cessna T210M
Cessna T210M · Accident: total loss of engine power (non-mechanical) on approach
From Ontario International Airport (ONT) to an unrecorded destination
Event
- NTSB case
- LAX91FA081
- 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 T210M
- 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
- N210TW
- Operator
- Truax, Thomas N. · private individual
- Onboard fatalities
- Unknown
- Route
- From Ontario International Airport (ONT), Ontario, CATo 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
- Approach · VFR pattern final
- 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
- Stall
- 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
- Pilot in command › Airspeed, not maintained
- Pilot in command › Stall, inadvertent
- Reason for occurrence undetermined
Approximate · Coordinates as recorded by the NTSB; no uncertainty radius is established.
NTSB narrative
THE PILOT WAS RETURNING TO HIS HOME AIRPORT FROM A FOUR HOUR ROUND-ROBIN FLIGHT WITH ON LANDING AND TAKEOFF EN ROUTE. THE FUEL TANKS WERE FULL AT THE FIRST TAKEOFF AND NO FUEL HAD BEEN ADDED. THE AIRCRAFT'S FUEL QUANTITY AT THE TIME OF THE ACCIDENT WAS CALCULATED TO BE 25 GALLONS. THE PILOT REPORTED HE HAD LOST THE ENGINE APPROXIMATELY 1/2 MILE FROM THE RUNWAY. A WITNESS OBSERVED THE AIRCRAFT'S NOSE RAISE AND THE AIRCRAFT ENTER INTO A STEEP DESCENDING RIGHT TURN BEFORE IT COLLIDED WITH THE GROUND. A POST-CRASH ENGINE OPERATIONAL TEST DID NOT DISCLOSE ANY EVIDENCE OF A FAILURE OR MALFUNCTION WOULD HAVE RESULTED IN AN ENGINE FAILURE. THE AIRCRAFT'S RIGHT WING TANK WAS RUPTURED DURING THE IMPACT SEQUENCE. THE LEFT TANK WAS LEAKING AND ONLY 5 GALLONS OF FUEL WAS RECOVERED. THE POSITION OF THE FUEL SELECTOR HANDLE IN THE COCKPIT POINTED TOWARD THE RIGHT FUEL TANK. THE FUEL SELECTOR VALVE WAS FOUND POSITIONED BETWEEN THE OFF AND LEFT TANK POSITION WHEN REMOVED.
Probable cause
A LOSS OF ENGINE POWER FOR UNDETERMINED REASONS AND THE PILOT'S FAILURE TO MAINTAIN AIRSPEED DURING THE ENSUING EMERGENCY LANDING.
Verbatim NTSB analysis and probable cause from the NTSB dataset
Sources
NTSB record LAX91FA081
- Event ID
- 20001212X16325
- Case number
- LAX91FA081
- 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: 093a94fc8fcf597602f5e57781c7e7e27119789da8e29b5e220c2c7c49eb2483; retrieved 2026-09-21T01:59:50.847Z.