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DEN91FA061 · Cessna T210M

19 Apr 1991 · Littleton, CO, United States

Denver Air Center Cessna T210M · Accident: total loss of engine power (mechanical failure) en route

From Rocky Mountain Metropolitan Airport (BJC) to City of Colorado Springs Municipal Airport (COS)

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Event

NTSB case
DEN91FA061
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
Instrument 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
N761CM
Onboard fatalities
Unknown
Route
From Rocky Mountain Metropolitan Airport (BJC), Broomfield, COTo City of Colorado Springs Municipal Airport (COS), Colorado Springs, CO
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 · climb to 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)
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
Wire, static; Tree(s)
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

  • Exhaust system, turbocharger › Assembly
  • Other maintenance personnel › Maintenance, overhaul, improper
  • Pilot in command › Fuel boost pump selector position, improper use of
  • Pilot in command › Mixture, improper use of

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

NTSB narrative

THE TURBOCHARGER FAILED DURING CLIMB TO CRUISE AND THE PILOT IMPROPERLY SELECTED HIGH BOOST AND FULL RICH MIXTURE, CAUSING A TOTAL LOSS OF POWER. IMC PREVAILED AND THE PILOT WAS INITIALLY VECTORED TOWARDS A DISTANT AIRPORT, THEN VECTORED TOWARDS A CLOSER AIRSTRIP. THE PILOT MADE A FORCED LANDING ON A RESIDENTIAL STREET. THE AIRPLANE COLLIDED WITH WIRES, TREES, AND A HOUSE, THEN BURNED. A POST-ACCIDENT EXAMINATION OF THE TURBOCHARGER DISCLOSED IMPROPER REASSEMBLY BY THE OVERHAUL FACILITY.

Probable cause

IMPROPER REASSEMBLY OF THE OVERHAULED TURBOCHARGER BY MAINTENANCE PERSONNEL, AND THE PILOT'S IMPROPER USE OF THE MIXTURE CONTROL AND BOOST PUMP. FACTORS RELATED TO THE ACCIDENT WERE: THE ADVERSE WEATHER CONDITIONS AND UNSUITABLE TERRAIN IN THE EMERGENCY LANDING AREA.

Verbatim NTSB analysis and probable cause from the NTSB dataset

Sources

NTSB record DEN91FA061
Event ID
20001212X16774
Case number
DEN91FA061
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: f1e61c1eb13384c172ebb8fd0fba763b387e122197e30fc9188f04dbc3611c1a; retrieved 2026-09-21T15:28:33.411Z.