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FTW91LA054 · Cessna 210

20 Mar 1991 · New Orleans, LA, United States

CGS Aviation Cessna 210 · Accident: total loss of engine power (mechanical failure) during initial climb

From an unrecorded airport to Greenwood–Leflore Airport (GWO)

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Event

NTSB case
FTW91LA054
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 210

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
N219CG
Operator
CGS Aviation
Onboard fatalities
Unknown
Route
From not recordedTo Greenwood–Leflore Airport (GWO), Greenwood, MS
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
Initial climb
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, crankshaft › Fatigue
  • Engine assembly, crankshaft › Fractured

Approximate · Coordinates as recorded by the NTSB; no uncertainty radius is established.

NTSB narrative

DURING A DAY TAKEOFF, THE AIRPLANE EXPERIENCED A COMPLETE LOSS OF ENGINE POWER DUE TO AN INTERNAL MECHANICAL FAILURE. THE ENGINE HAD BEEN RUNNING ROUGH AND HAD A HISTORY OF HIGH VIBRATIONS. FOLLOWING HIS EMERGENCY DECLARATION, THE PILOT LANDED ON AIRPORT PROPERTY ADJACENT TO THE RUNWAY OVER-RUN. DURING THE LANDING ROLL, THE NOSE GEAR SHEARED AND THE AIRPLANE NOSED OVER TO THE INVERTED POSITION. TECHNICAL ASSISTANCE FROM THE MANUFACTURER HAD IDENTIFIED AN INTERNAL PROBLEM THAT WAS DEVELOPING THE VIBRATORY LOADS. THE PILOT WAS FULLY AWARE OF THE MANUFACTURERS ANALYSIS, BUT CHOSE TO CONTINUE TO OPERATE THE AIRPLANE WITHOUT ENGINE MAINTENANCE BEING PERFORMED. ENGINE DISASSEMBLY REVEALED CRANKSHAFT FAILURE WITH MULTIPLE ZONES OF FATIGUE.

Probable cause

THE POWER LOSS DUE TO FATIGUE INDUCED CRANKSHAFT FAILURE. FACTORS WERE THE PILOT'S CONTINUED OPERATION WITH KNOWN MECHANICAL MALFUNCTION AND THE LACK OF SUITABLE TERRAIN FOR THE FORCED LANDING.

Verbatim NTSB analysis and probable cause from the NTSB dataset

Sources

NTSB record FTW91LA054
Event ID
20001212X16608
Case number
FTW91LA054
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: 1197e3b798c61da36f45411f8644a90944828d4c30be9eb658b0c6005978c923; retrieved 2026-09-23T04:34:28.111Z.