Cherokee Express Air Cargo Cessna 210M accident
Cessna 210M · Accident: total loss of engine power (non-mechanical) en route
From Tampa International Airport (TPA) to Orlando Executive Airport (ORL)
Event
- NTSB case
- MIA92LA036
- 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
- Charter & commuter
- 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 210M
- 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
- N9064M
- Operator
- Cherokee Express Air Cargo
- Onboard fatalities
- Unknown
- Route
- From Tampa International Airport (TPA), Tampa, FLTo Orlando Executive Airport (ORL), Orlando, FL
- 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 135: Air Taxi & Commuter
- 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 (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
- Fuel starvation; 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
- Substantial
Cause areas
- Fluid, fuel › Starvation
- Pilot in command › Fuel tank selector position, improper
Approximate · Estimated position: the centre of Zephyrhills, FL, the place the record names. Not the accident site.
NTSB narrative
APPX 20 MINUTES AFTER TAKEOFF DURING CRUISE FLT, THE ENG QUIT DUE TO FUEL STARVATION. THE PLT REPOSITIONED THE FUEL SELECTOR & ATTEMPTED TO RESTART THE ENG BUT WAS UNSUCCESSFUL. DURING THE EMERGENCY DESCENT WHILE ON A DARK NIGHT, THE ACFT COLLIDED WITH TREES, THEN THE GROUND & CAME TO REST. THE LT FUEL TANK WAS DRAINED WHICH REVEALED THAT IT CONTAINED APPX 7 GALS OF FUEL. THE RT FUEL TANK, WHICH WAS NOT DAMAGED, WAS EMPTY. THERE WAS NO EVIDENCE OF FUEL SIPHONING THROUGH THE FUEL CAPS. THE RT WING FUEL VENT WAS EXAMINED & FOUND TO BE BLOCKED BY AN UNK OBJECT BUT BOTH FUEL TANKS HAD VENTED FUEL CAPS INSTALLED. BOTH CAPS OPS CHECKED GOOD. THE ENG WAS REMOVED FROM THE ACCIDENT ACFT & PLACED ON ANOTHER ACFT FOR AN ENG RUN. THE ENG WAS STARTED AND FOUND TO OPERATE NORMALLY. THE PLT REPORTED THAT AT THE TIME OF THE LOSS OF POWER, THE FUEL SELECTOR WAS POSITIONED TO THE LT TANK.
Probable cause
IMPROPER PLACEMENT OF THE FUEL SELECTOR BY THE PILOT-IN-COMMAND RESULTING IN THE TOTAL LOSS OF ENGINE POWER DUE TO FUEL STARVATION. CONTRIBUTING TO THE ACCIDENT WAS AN INCORRECT FUEL QUANTITY GAGE, THE DARK NIGHT CONDITION, AND UNSUITABLE TERRAIN ENCOUNTERED.
Verbatim NTSB analysis and probable cause from the NTSB dataset
Sources
NTSB record MIA92LA036
- Event ID
- 20001212X18496
- Case number
- MIA92LA036
- 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: local date, investigation status. Values present in the bulk record are kept.
- The date is the local date; the NTSB stores the UTC date 1991-11-30.
- API snapshot SHA-256: 7adff5f5549e1889033a2c84523219a1d4124dfe53d97268febc524ddabcd7bb; retrieved 2026-09-18T18:50:10.691Z.