DEN99LA131 · Cessna T210F
Cessna T210F · Accident: partial loss of engine power (mechanical failure) en route
From Centennial Airport (APA) to Aspen-Pitkin County Airport (Sardy Field) (ASE)
Event
- NTSB case
- DEN99LA131
- 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 T210F
- 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
- N6125R
- Operator
- Unknown
- Onboard fatalities
- Unknown
- Route
- From Centennial Airport (APA), Englewood, COTo Aspen-Pitkin County Airport (Sardy Field) (ASE), Aspen, 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 · 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
- Partial 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
- 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
- Exhaust system, turbocharger › Failure, partial
Approximate · Coordinates as recorded by the NTSB; no uncertainty radius is established.
NTSB narrative
The pilot departed the airport and leveled off at a cruising altitude of 14,500 feet msl. He leaned the mixture and set a cruise power setting of 24 inches of manifold pressure and 2400 rpm. Shortly thereafter, the manifold pressure dropped to 22 inches. He applied power, and the manifold pressure was briefly restored, then dropped again. He found an open field in which to make an emergency landing. Prior to touching down, the left wing impacted a tree, and the aircraft nosed over upon impact with the ground. Following the accident, a teardown inspection was performed on the turbocharger. Evidence of rotational scoring was found on the turbine components. The rotation of the thrust bearing was allowed by the displacement of the anti-rotation pins below the surface of the center housing. Rotational score marks on the back side of the turbine wheel provided evidence that the turbine wheel had contacted the turbine shroud. According to the aircraft maintenance records, the last major overhaul of the turbocharger was accomplished in 1987
Probable cause
A partial loss of engine power due to a partial failure of the turbocharger.
Verbatim NTSB analysis and probable cause from the NTSB dataset
Sources
NTSB record DEN99LA131
- Event ID
- 20001212X19254
- Case number
- DEN99LA131
- 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: 3a2fe63d8e17d24df55baf80b3e37f261cb0824ff9a790b4aa2f314663b3a6a5; retrieved 2026-09-21T10:55:24.787Z.