FTW90LA116 · Cessna T210N
Cessna T210N · Accident: loss of engine power en route
From Las Cruces International Airport (LRU) to Ellington Airport (EFD)
Event
- NTSB case
- FTW90LA116
- 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 T210N
- 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
- N5472Y
- Operator
- Unknown
- Onboard fatalities
- Unknown
- Route
- From Las Cruces International Airport (LRU), Las Cruces, NMTo Ellington Airport (EFD), PASEDENA, TX
- 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 · descent
- 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 engine power
- 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
- Reason for occurrence undetermined
Not plotted · Location withheld: coordinates are missing, conflicting, invalid, or have no accepted acquisition method. No substitute location has been invented.
NTSB narrative
FOLLOWING A RAPID DESCENT FROM 1,500 FEET TO 600 FEET, THE PILOT LEVELED OFF AND APPLIED ENGINE POWER AND RECEIVED NO RESPONSE. HIS EFFORTS TO REMEDY THE SITUATION WERE NOT SUCCESSFUL AND HE DECIDED TO EXECUTE A FORCED LANDING TO A FIELD. ON SHORT FINAL THE AIRPLANE STRUCK BRUSH, NOSED DOWN, AND FLIPPED OVER. EXAMINATION OF THE WRECKAGE REVEALED ADEQUATE FUEL ON BOARD AND FUEL WAS FOUND THROUGHOUT THE SYSTEM AND ENGINE UP TO THE FLOW DIVIDER. FOLLOWING RECOVERY, THE ENGINE WAS TEST RUN WHILE STILL MOUNTED ON THE AIRFRAME, USING EXISTING CONTROLS AND AN IMPROVISED FUEL SUPPLY SYSTEM. THE ENGINE STARTED AND WAS OPERATED UP TO POWER SETTINGS OF 2,000 RPM. THROUGHOUT THE RUNS THE ENGINE RESPONDED TO ALL THROTTLE MOVEMENTS WITHOUT HESITATION.
Probable cause
ENGINE FAILURE DUE TO AN UNDETERMINED REASON.
Verbatim NTSB analysis and probable cause from the NTSB dataset
Sources
NTSB record FTW90LA116
- Event ID
- 20001212X23423
- Case number
- FTW90LA116
- 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 1990-06-08.
- API snapshot SHA-256: b52b804c2c7c2702a3ee818a79ec94aa270845cf447609e18d070e9d3c8489db; retrieved 2026-09-21T23:51:51.278Z.