LAX92LA031 · Cessna T210L
Cessna T210L · Accident: loss of control in flight during initial climb
From an unrecorded airport to San Luis County Regional Airport (SBP)
Event
- NTSB case
- LAX92LA031
- 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
- N93054
- Operator
- Vincent Vandenbosch
- Onboard fatalities
- Unknown
- Route
- From not recordedTo San Luis County Regional Airport (SBP), San Luis Obispo, 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
- 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
- Loss of control in flight
- 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
No findings designated as a cause are recorded in the NTSB data yet.
Approximate · Estimated position: the centre of Van Nuys, CA, the place the record names. Not the accident site.
NTSB narrative
WITNESSES AT THE AIRPORT STATED THAT JUST AFTER THE AIRPLANE LIFTED OFF RUNWAY 16R, IT IMMEDIATELY BEGAN A VERY TIGHT 360 DEGREE TURN AND CRASHED BETWEEN RUNWAY 16L AND THE ADJACENT TAXIWAY. THE PILOT STATED TO FEDERAL AVIATION ADMINISTRATION (FAA) INSPECTORS THAT, AFTER LIFTOFF, THE AIRPLANE BEGAN TURNING TO THE LEFT AND TRYING TO DIVE AND THAT HE HAD GREAT DIFFICULTY OVERRIDING THE FORCES ON THE CONTROLS. THE PILOT, WHO IS ALSO A CERTIFIED FLIGHT INSTRUCTOR, STATED THAT HE WAS FLYING THE AIRPLANE FROM THE RIGHT FRONT SEAT. FAA INSPECTORS EXAMINED THE WRECKAGE AND FOUND THE RIGHT SEAT RUDDER PEDAL COLLAPSED TO THE FLOOR. THE FAA INSPECTOR PULLED THE STOWABLE RUDDER PEDAL INTO THE FLIGHT POSITION, AND IT LOCKED IN PLACE. WHEN THE FAA INSPECTOR APPLIED HAND PRESSURE TO BOTH PEDALS, THE RIGHT PEDAL SNAPPED INTO THE RETRACT POSITION. HE ATTEMPTED THIS SEVERAL TIMES. THE FAA INSPECTOR DISASSEMBLED THE PEDAL AND FOUND THAT THE PIN RECEIVING HOLE WAS WORN OBLONG, ALLOWING THE PIN TO DISENGAGE.
Probable cause
THE INADVERTENT LOSS OF CONTROL DURING THE INITIAL CLIMB AFTER TAKEOFF THAT RESULTED FROM THE COLLAPSE OF THE RUDDER PEDAL BECAUSE OF A WORN LOCKING PIN HOLE IN THE RUDDER PEDAL STOWING SYSTEM, WHICH ALLOWED THE PIN TO DISENGAGE.
Verbatim NTSB analysis and probable cause from the NTSB dataset
Sources
NTSB record LAX92LA031
- Event ID
- 20001212X18463
- Case number
- LAX92LA031
- 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: f11a73c7c56971f41ac78080f05d06af5adc0c447edcc17fb8daa307624391cf; retrieved 2026-09-23T03:33:56.182Z.