LAX01FA007 · Cessna P210N
Cessna P210N · Accident: total loss of engine power (non-mechanical) on approach
From Nogales International Airport (OLS) to Phoenix Deer Valley Airport (DVT)
Event
- NTSB case
- LAX01FA007
- 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
- 2 · 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 P210N
- 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
- N888MM
- Operator
- Unknown
- Onboard fatalities
- Unknown
- Route
- From Nogales International Airport (OLS), Nogales, AZTo Phoenix Deer Valley Airport (DVT), Phoenix, AZ
- 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
- Approach · VFR pattern final
- 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; Wire, transmission
- 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
- Fluid, fuel › Starvation
- Pilot in command › Flight manuals, not followed
Approximate · Coordinates as recorded by the NTSB; no uncertainty radius is established.
NTSB narrative
While on final approach, low, and configured to land, the engine lost all power. The pilot attempted to land in a field and collided with power lines. After returning from Mexico, and reentering the United States at a port of entry, the flight proceeded to the destination airport. Upon arrival the tower advised the pilot to hold for landing sequence, and was cleared to land after about 5 minutes of holding. The ATCT controllers observed the airplane turn left and descend steeply out of sight. Fuel was not available at the Mexico location and not purchased at the port of entry. According to a recovered trip log of seven previous trips, an average similar trip took 3.5 hours as recorded from the mechanical recording tachometer. The average fuel quantity used per round trip was 68.5 gallons. The highest recorded fuel used was 72.6 gallons. The longest round trip time was 3.7 hours. The lowest fuel quantity used was 65.1 gallons. The average fuel burn rate was 19.57 gallons per hour. The average number of gallons remaining at Deer Valley airport was 20.5 plus or minus 5 gallons. The actual fuel quantity could not be determined. The airplane has a two-tank system of 44.5 gallons of usable fuel in each tank, when properly serviced. The fuel selector was found in the off position, possibly a reaction to the emergency. The selector provides fuel from either the left or right fuel tank, but not both simultaneously. The postaccident fire destroyed the left wing and part of the right wing root; no fuel was found in the tank system. Cessna pilot safety and warning supplements were recovered from the wreckage. According to the information, if the fuel tank outlet is uncovered, by fuel, fuel flow to the engine may be interrupted and a temporary loss of power might result. A note in the pilot information manual for the fuel system states that "unusable fuel is at a minimum due to the design of the fuel system. However, when the fuel tanks are 1/4 full or less, prolonged uncoordinated flight such as slips or skids can uncover the fuel tank outlets, causing fuel starvation and engine stoppage. Therefore, with low fuel reserves, do not allow the airplane to remain in uncoordinated flight for periods in excess of one minute."
Probable cause
The failure of the pilot to operate the airplane according to the flight manual, resulting in fuel starvation and loss of engine power during a critical phase of flight. A factor was the lack of suitable terrain for a forced landing and the presence of utility lines at the forced landing site.
Verbatim NTSB analysis and probable cause from the NTSB dataset
Sources
NTSB record LAX01FA007
- Event ID
- 20001212X22179
- Case number
- LAX01FA007
- 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: 276f6cae4fab175ff6fd14929b7712eb7db2e92740ddaab14dd8e8ea631e2c24; retrieved 2026-09-20T20:49:42.454Z.