NYC91LA129 · Cessna 210L
Cessna 210L · Accident: total loss of engine power (mechanical failure) en route
From CRE · MYRTLE BEACH, NC to N52 · Somerset, NJ
Event
- NTSB case
- NYC91LA129
- 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 210L
- 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
- N732BU
- Operator
- Richard Johnston
- Onboard fatalities
- Unknown
- Route
- From CRE · MYRTLE BEACH, NCTo N52 · Somerset, NJ
- 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)
- 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/mush
- 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
- Pilot in command › Airspeed, not maintained
- Pilot in command › Stall/mush, inadvertent
Approximate · Estimated position: the centre of Lumberton, NJ, the place the record names. Not the accident site.
NTSB narrative
WHILE CRUISING AT 3500 FEET, THE PILOT EXPERIENCED A HEAVY VIBRATION IN THE ENGINE AND WAS VECTORED TO A NEARBY AIRPORT. HE WAS HIGH AS HE TURNED ONTO FINAL APPROACH. HE RETRACTED THE WING FLAPS AND THE LANDING GEAR, AND ADDED POWER TO TRY FOR A NEARBY FIELD. THE ENGINE FAILED TO RESPOND AND HE LANDED HARD NEXT TO THE RUNWAY. WITNESS REPORTED THE AIRPLANE APPEARED TO STALL FROM A HEIGHT OF 40 TO 50 FEET. POST-CRASH EXAMINATION REVEALED THE OIL SCREEN HAD BEEN REPLACED WITH AN OIL FILTER ADAPTER WHICH HAD COME LOOSE AND THE ENGINE OIL ESCAPED THROUGH THE OPENING. THE $4 CONNECTING ROD FAILED DUE TO OIL STARVATION AND PENETRATED THE ENGINE CASE. THE THREADS ON THE OIL FILTER ADAPTER WERE WORN AS WERE THE MATING THREADS ON THE OIL PUMP HOUSING.
Probable cause
THE PILOT'S FAILURE TO MAINTAIN AIRSPEED AND THE RESULTANT INADVERTENT STALL. A FACTOR IN THE ACCIDENT WAS THE LOOSE OIL FILTER.
Verbatim NTSB analysis and probable cause from the NTSB dataset
Sources
NTSB record NYC91LA129
- Event ID
- 20001212X17100
- Case number
- NYC91LA129
- 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: b3675dd6868c405dc912ef7ef463cdf8668149f6b6425523872cc513c3e53d10; retrieved 2026-09-21T15:27:38.549Z.