DEN90LA078 · Cessna T210J
Cessna T210J · Accident: loss of control on ground/water during takeoff
From an unrecorded airport to OKC Will Rogers World Airport (OKC)
Event
- NTSB case
- DEN90LA078
- 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 T210J
- 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
- N2KD
- Operator
- Hugh R. Catherwood · private individual
- Onboard fatalities
- Unknown
- Route
- From not recordedTo OKC Will Rogers World Airport (OKC), Oklahoma City, OK
- 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
- Takeoff · rejected takeoff
- 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 on ground/water
- 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 › Directional control, not maintained
Approximate · Coordinates as recorded by the NTSB; no uncertainty radius is established.
NTSB narrative
THE PILOT TAXIED FOR TAKEOFF AND ATTEMPTED TO ROTATE AT 70 KNOTS. HE SAID FULL AFT PRESSURE ON THE YOKE WOULD NOT CAUSE THE PLANE TO LIFT OFF. HE ATTEMPTED TO ABORT AFTER THE PLANE REACHED 90 KNOTS, BUT LOST CONTROL. THE PLANE DEPARTED THE RUNWAY TO THE RIGHT AND STRUCK A CULVERT IN A DITCH. THE NOSE GEAR COLLAPSED, AND THE PLANE NOSED DOWN. THE FIREWALL, GEAR, PROPELLER AND PART OF THE FUSELAGE WERE BENT. THE PILOT SAID THIS WAS THE FIRST FLIGHT FOLLOWING REPAIRS PERFORMED ON THE AUTOPILOT. THE PILOT SAID HE ALWAYS ROLLED THE ELEVATOR TRIM WHEEL A HALF- TURN FORWARD FOR TAKEOFF, SINCE HE ALWAYS LEFT THE TRIM FULLAFT AT LANDING. HE DID NOT NOTE THE INDICATOR POSITION, SINCE THE INDICATOR WAS BROKEN PRIOR TO THE ACCIDENT. A POSTACCIDENT INSPECTION REVEALED THAT THE MECHANIC REPAIRED THE INDICATOR AND SET TRIM TO NEUTRAL IN ORDER TO COMPLETE THE MAINTENANCE. NO FAULT WAS FOUND WITH THE TRIM OR AUTOPILOT SYSTEM. A CESSNA ENG. ESTIMATED THE REPORTED TRIM SETTING WOULD REQUIRE CONSIDERABLE STRENGHT TO OVERCOME FOR TAKEOFF.
Probable cause
THE PILOT'S LOSS OF DIRECTIONAL CONTROL DURING AN ABORTED TAKEOFF.
Verbatim NTSB analysis and probable cause from the NTSB dataset
Sources
NTSB record DEN90LA078
- Event ID
- 20001212X22704
- Case number
- DEN90LA078
- 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: f8d0ea0151365b8a682ba78b01efe8a05f7ef4a4c8c9b04bbf3e2d76da0548c0; retrieved 2026-09-21T23:56:01.851Z.